.. |.f"*t^j^||-*|gAftyi 




Glass _BMO^ 
Book__:S4i 



THE WELSH PEOPLE 



THE 

WELSH PEOPLE 



CHAPTERS ON THEIR 



ORIGIN, HISTORY, LAWS, LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, 
AND CHARACTERISTICS 



TOHN RHYS, M.A., 

PRINCIPAL OF JESUS COLLEGE, AND PROFESSOR OF CELTIC IN THE 
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 



DAVID BRYNMOR-JONES, LL.B., 

BENCHER OF THE HON. SOCIETY OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, QUEEN'S COUNSEL, 
AND MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT 



WITH TWO MAPS 



.^srontr anil Eciiisfitr (Ptiition 



NEW YORK: 
THE MACMILLAN CO 
igoo. 



i. 



^ 



6> 



WE DEDICATE THIS BOOK 

TO 

THE MEMORY OF 

THE LATE 

HENRY BARON ABERDARE 

OF DUFFRYN 

AND OF THE LATE 

THOMAS EDWARD ELLIS 

OF CYNLAS 
IN RECOGNITION OF THE PUBLIC SERVICES 
RENDERED BY THEM TO THEIR 
NATIVE LAND. 



PREFACE. 



The following chapters concerning the Welsh people 
consist partly of extracts from the Report of the Royal 
Commission on Land in Wales and Monmouthshire, and 
partly of matter which we have written since that body 
finished its work. 

Chapters I., IV., X., XI., XII., and XIII. are based upon 
the Report, and were all (except some paragraphs in 
Chapter XII., for which the Commission was indebted to 
Mr. Lleufer Thomas, one of the secretaries) originally 
drafted by us, and were adopted with many changes by all 
the Commissioners. As now published they have, how- 
ever, been greatly added to and altered, and though, as they 
appeared in the Report, they were signed by all our 
colleagues, we cannot hold them responsible for them in 
their present form. 

Chapters II., III., V., VI., VII., and VIII. are new. 

The greater part of Chapter IX. was written by Mr. 
Frederic Seebohm, LL.D., one of the Commissioners, the 
well-known author of "The English Village Community" 
and other works. This part of the Report appears to us so 
valuable a contribution to economic history that it ought to 
be made more accessible to students than it is at present. 
We accordingly republish it here with Mr. Seebohm's 
kind consent. 

For permission to reprint such paragraphs of the Report 



viii PREFACE. 

as we might deem necessary for this work, we are indebted 
to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, whose consent 
was courteously signified through the Right Honourable 
R. W. Hanbury, M.P. 

In the Introduction which follows we give some 
necessary preliminary information, and explain briefly the 
scope and character of the work. 

We have to acknowledge our obligation for help of 
various kinds to Professor Morris Jones, M.A. ; Mr. Henry 
Owen, B.C.L. ; Mr. Cadvvaladr Davies; Mr. Edward Owen, 
F.S.A. ; Lieut.-Col. Morgan, of Brynbriaiiu, Swansea ; 
Principal Viriamu Jones, F.R.S. ; Chancellor Trevor 
Parkins ; Mr. Lleufer Thomas, M.A. ; Mr. Cecil Owen, 
M.A. ; Mr. T. E. Morris, LL.M. ; and many other friends. 

JOHN RHYS, 
D. BRYNMOR-JONES. 
St. DaviiVs Day. looo. 



NOTE TO THE READER. 



In this book where we refer to "the Commission," we 
mean, unless the context shows the contrary, the Royal 
Commission on Land in Wales and Monmouthshire, 
appointed on March 27, 1893. The Commissioners 
were : — Earl Carrington, G.C.M.G. (chairman) ; Lord 
Kenyon ; Sir John Talbot Dillwyn Llewelyn, Bart., M.P. ; 
Mr. Edwin Grove, chairman of the Monmouthshire County 
Council ; Mr. John Morgan Griffiths, of Penally ; Mr. 
Richard Jones, of Pertheirin ; Mr. PVederic Seebohm, 
M.A., LL.D. ; and ourselves. The secretaries were Mr. 
Lleufer Thomas and Mr. C. E. Owen. 

The Minutes of the evidence taken by the Commission 
are contained in five Blue-books, the references to which 
are as follows :— Vol. I., (1894) C— 7439 ; Vol. II., (1894) 
C— 7439; Vol. III., (1895) C— 7661; Vol. IV, (1895) 
C — 7757 ; Vol. V, (1896) C — 8222. In these volumes the 
questions put to the witnesses, with their answers, are 
numbered consecutively from the beginning to the end. 
So in referring to the evidence we do so by giving the 
number of the question and answer in these Minutes. 

When we have occasion to refer to the Report of this 
Commission (which was signed and delivered on August 26, 
1896, and is Parly. Paper (1896) C — 8221), we use the 
word "Report" only; and the words "Appendix to 
Report" mean the Appendix to that Report (Parly. Paper 
(1896) C— 8242). 



X NOTE TO THE READER. 

It has been found impossible to insure uniformity in the 
spelHng of Welsh names in this work, as we have not 
thought it advisable to depart altogether from the spellings 
occurring in the documents consulted. This may occasion 
some inconvenience to the reader, but if he should happen 
to be a student of English history he will readily recognise 
in it an inconvenience with which he has had to struggle 
in his own field of study. As regards, however, the history 
of Wales and the Welsh, the case is somewhat aggravated 
by the fact that not only have we to deal with names 
belonging to widely different centuries, carrying with them 
phonetic modifications, but that in not a few instances 
a name may have besides several Welsh spellings, several 
English ones too. Take, for example, that of Gruffu^ or 
GruffyTt, of which the most usual English spelling is Griffith : 
the index shows a still greater variety. It will simplify 
matters for the English reader if he will bear in mind the 
following points of Welsh orthography and phonology : — 

(i) C has always the sound of k, and formerly both 
c and k were used, though the present Welsh alphabet 
does not recognise k. 

(2) G has never the English sound ofy or dch as in 
/o/m OY James. 

(3) F \s sounded v, and both letters were formerly used, 
but V is not included in the modern alphabet. 

(4) Dd (printed D, d in this work) has the sound of 
th in the English words this and that, while th is confined 
to the sound of the same digraph in thick and thin. 

(5) LI (here printed L, ft) represents the surd force of 
unilateral /, and its sound stands to that of / as that 
of th to (i or of/// to V. It is a single and simple consonant, 
though Englishmen sometimes seem to hear it as thl, 
which has now and then been their way of representing 
it, as, for instance, in " The Record of Carnarvon," in 

Thlandrethloh for LatidriHo. 



NOTE TO THE READER. x] 

(6) R is trilled as in Italian, and in rh it is a surd 
strengthened by the aspirate. 

(7) 5" is never sounded z. 

(8) W may be either a vowel or a consonant, that is 
English 00 (approximately) and zv : a similar remark is 
in part applicable to the sound of i. 

(9) U is sounded nearly like a thickish English z", as 
in the word bit, and so under certain circumstances isj. 
Thus Gruffyd or Gruffjfd is sounded very nearly as 
indicated by the English spelling Griffith, provided the 
final th have its soft sound. The inconsistency between 
Gruffyd and Maredu'd was observed too late to be cor- 
rected : the preferable spelling is Maredyd or Meredyd — 
the early forms were Gripp-iud and Marget-iud. 

(10) The syllabic accent is ordinarily on the penultimate, 
except where the two last syllables of a word have been 
run into one in the more modern stages of the Welsh 
language : then the word is of course a perispomenon.- 

J. R. 
D. B.-J. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

PREFACE . . . vii 

NOTE TO THE READER . . . . ' . . . ix 

TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii 

INTRODUCTION xv 



CHAP. 

I. THE ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES .... I 

n. THE PICTISH QUESTION 36 

III. ROMAN BRITAIN '75 

IV. EARLY HISTORY OF THE CYMRY II7 

V. HISTORY OF WALES FROM CADWALADR TO THE NORMAN 

CONQUEST 123 

VI. THE ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF WALES . . . I76 

VII. HISTORY OF WALES FROM I066 TO 12,82 .... 261 

VIII. LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF WALES FROM 

1382 346 

IX. HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES .... 395 

X. THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT 453 

XI. THE EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT 478 

XII. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE OF WALES .... 5OI 

XIII, RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY .... 551 



xiv CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



APPENDIX A. — LIST OF CANTREFS AND CYMWDS . . . 6ll 

B. — PRE-ARYAN SYNTAX IN INSULAR CELTIC . 617 

., C. — LIST OF LORDSHIPS UNITED TO FORM NEW 

COUNTIES OR ADDED TO EXISTING COUNTIES 

BY STAT. 27 HENRY VII. C. 26 . . . 642 

D. — NOTE ON THE WELSH LAWS .... 645 



Index of Names and other Words 649 

Index of Principal Topics and Terms 671 



MAPS. 

1. map of wales in cantrefs and cymwds . To fact' p. 1 

2. map of ROMAN BRITAIN . . . . • m /• 75 



TABLES. 

A. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF ENGLISH AND WELSH KINGS 

AND PRINCES DOWN TO IO66 .... TofaCCp. I74 

B. THE HOUSE OF RHODRI ,, P- 174 



INTRODUCTION. 



The Dominion or Principality of Wales may be described 
as a broad indented peninsula situated in the south-western 
part of Great Britain. Its greatest length from north to 
south is about 135 miles, and its breadth from east to west 
ranges from about 35 to 95 miles. On the north it is 
bounded by the Irish Sea and the estuary of the Dee, 
on the west by St. George's Channel, on the south by 
the Bristol Channel, and on the east by Cheshire, Shrop- 
shire, Herefordshire, and Monmouthshire. The eastern 
boundary was definitely fixed by the operation of the 
St. 27 Henry VIII. c. 26,^ though some small variations 
have subsequently taken place. 

The Principality is divided, as is the case with England, 
into counties, which, including Monmouthshire, are thirteen 
in number. The names of these counties with their Welsh 
equivalents are : — 



Anglesey 

Carnarvonshire 

Denbighshire 

Flintshire . 

Merionethshire 

Montgomeryshire 

Brecknockshire 

Cardiganshire 



Ynys Mon. 

Sir Caernarfon. 

Sir £)inbych. 

. Sir Fflint. 

Sir Feirionyd. 

Sir Drefaldwyn. 

Sir Frycheiniog. 

Sir Aberteifi. 



1 See below, pp. 368-74. 



xvi INTRODUCTION. 



Carmarthenshire 



Glamorganshire 
Pembrokeshire 
Radnorshire 
Monmouthshire 



Sir Gaerfyrdin. 



. Sir Forgannvvg. 

Sir Benfro. 

Sir Faesyfed. 

Sir Fynwy. 

The first six form what is generally known as North ' 
Wales, and the remainder South Wales. Their boundaries 
preserve, to some extent, the ancient divisions of the 
Principality. There are also two large county boroughs- 
Cardiff and Swansea. 

Monmouthshire is technically an English county, but it 
is often for administrative purposes, and sometimes by 
legislation, treated as part of Wales, or grouped with some 
of the Welsh counties. ^ This has been due partly to the 

' Monmouthshire was constituted into a county or shire by 27 Henry VIII. 
c. 26. out of territory that was expressly stated to be part of the Dominion 
of Wales, but it was, however, by the same statute made subject to the 
courts at Westminster, while the rest of Wales was granted separate 
jurisdiction, which lasted until its abolition in 1830. See infra, p. 373. 

The position of the county at present is in many respects anomalous. It 
forms part of the Oxford Circuit, and, therefore, is included in England in 
most matters concerned with the administration of law, but in the division 
of the country into county court circuits, the whole of the county, along 
with Cardiff and Crickhowell (in Wales) and Ross (in Herefordshire), is 
grouped into what may be regarded as a Welsh circuit (No. 24). Its inclu- 
sion in Wales for executive purposes has been the general, though not 
universal, rule. It is so recognised by the Registrar-General for statistical 
purposes, by the Local Government Board for poor-law purposes, and by 
the Home Office for the purposes of the Mines Regulation Acts, the Factory 
and Workshop Acts, and the Quarries Act. In all matters educational, 
Wales and Monmouthshire have been treated as a unit distinct from 
England, e.g., by the appointment of Commissioners to inquire into the 
state of Education in Wales in 1846, and of the Departmental Committee to 
inquire into Intermediate and Higher Education in Wales in 1880-81, as well 
as by the subsequent passing of the Intermediate Education Act of 1S89. It 
was similarly dealt with by the Schools Inquiry Commission of 1864, which 
issued a separate report (vol. xx.) on the schools of " Monmouthshire and 
Wales" ; by the Couft of Chancery in Schemes for the re-organization of 
Charitable Trusts; by the Oxford University Commissioners in Statutes 
made under the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Act, 1877 ; and by 
the Privy Council in the granting of charters to the University College o^ 



INTRODUCTION. xvii 

similarity of its development to that of the adjoining 
county of Glamorgan, and partly to the fact that a large 
proportion of its inhabitants are Welsh as to their origin, 
language, and habits. In any historical inquiry as to the 
Cymric people it must be looked on as Welsh, and so in 
this work we generally use the term Wales as including 
Monmouthshire. 

These thirteen counties are divided into hundreds, 
poor-law unions, highway districts, sanitary districts, and 
parishes for the purposes of local government ; into petty 
sessional divisions, county court districts, and circuits for 
the administration of justice ; and into borough and county 
constituencies for the appointment of parliamentary repre- 
sentatives. There are also ecclesiastical divisions similar to 
those that exist in England.^ The most ancient political 
division of Wales about which we have any sure knowledge 
is that into cantrefs and cymwds. This must not be 

South Wales and Monmouthshire, and to the University of Wales. Both 
the Education Department and the Charity Commissioners, in their super- 
intendence and inspection of elementary and intermediate schools respec- 
tively, also include Monmouthshire in Wales, and reports specially dealing 
with Wales are reprinted, in separate book-form, from the annual general 
reports made by these two Departments. Monmouthshire was, however, 
treated as a part of England (and not of Wales) in the Welsh Sunday 
Closing Act of 1881, as it has also been in nearly all matters agricultural, 
e.g., by the Royal Commission on Agriculture (1880) ; by the Royal Com- 
mission on Labour (in its inquiry as to the agricultural labourer in 1892-93), 
and also, we believe, by the Royal Commission on Agricultural Depression 
(1893-6), but not by the Commission on the Employment of Children, 
Young Persons, and Women in Agriculture (1867). The Board of Agricul- 
ture also treats Monmouthshire as a part of England in the preparation 
of their agricultural returns, as well as in all other matters. 

1 A list of the hundreds in each county, with the names of the parishes 
in each hundred, will be found in the Appendix to the Report, pp. 361 
et seq. The student should compare this list with that of the Welsh 
parishes, according to cymwds printed in the " Myvyrian Archaiology," 
ii. 613-628. For a list of the poor-law unions, see the Appendix 
cited above, pp. 378-403, and of the highway districts, see the same 
Appendix, pp. 404-408. Much information as to Wales and its place 
names is given in Carlisle's " Topography of Wales," Lond. 181 1. 

' W:P. d 



xviii INTRODUCTION. 

confounded with the distribution of the Cymric land among 
the regal or princely families which resulted in small 
kingdoms or principalities. It was regarded as old in the 
time of Howel ©a (907-950), and the boundaries of the 
cantrefs and cymwds were then well enough ascertained for 
practical purposes. We think it useful to reproduce the 
map of Wales according to cantrefs and cymwds made by 
William Owen (known later as Dr. Owen Pughe) about 
the end of the eighteenth century. We ought to say 
that this map cannot be taken as representing boundaries 
with absolute accuracy, but it ma}' be found of some service 
as showing the geographical relations of the various areas. 

There is yet another division of Welsh land distinct in 
origin, and based on different conceptions from that into 
cantrefs and cymwds, which must be mentioned, though it 
has now little or no practical political significance — that 
into seigniories, lordships-marchers, lordships, manors, and 
fees. These feudal divisions were the result of the Norman 
Conquest of South Wales and the Marches, and of the 
final conquest of the Principality of Edward I. They are 
often conterminous with other areas. ^ 

We think it well to add a few observations as to the 
population of Wales at different periods, for without 
bearing in mind the number of persons concerned it is 
not possible to appreciate historical events correctly, or to 
see the past conditions of things in true perspective. 

Beginning with the known and proceeding to the con- 
jectural statistics, we find that according to the census 
returns of 1891 the population of England and Wales was 
29,002,525, and that of Wales (including Monmouthshire) 
was 1,776,405 ; so that the population of the latter area 

1 As to the lordships, etc., see the " Memorandum on the Lordships and 
Manors of Wales and Monmouthshire" in the Appendix to the Report, 
pp. 437 et seq. In the Principality, in the limited sense — the land acquired 
by Edward I. — the cymwds were treated as in effect lordships that passed by 
conquest into the hands of the Crown, See below, p. 281, n. i, 305, 256, 403. 



INTRODUCTION. xix 

was about one-sixteenth of that of the former.^ Coming 
to the first complete and systematic enumeration of 
England and Wales — the census of 1801 — we find that the 
figures for ILngland and Wales are 8,892,536, and for 
Wales and Monmouthshire 586,634. From them it appears 
that the population of Wales and Monmouthshire was a 
little over one-fifteenth of that of the whole of England 
and Wales." 

Before 1801 no direct and trustworthy enumeration 
of the inhabitants of this country had taken place, but 
numerous estimates had been made from time to time. 
Three such estimates of the population towards the close 
of the seventeenth century have been made at different 
times by three statisticians, acting without concert, and the 
results differ but slightly. Perhaps the best known of 
these computations is that made by Gregory King. The 
basis of his calculation is the number of houses returned in 
1690 by the officers who made the last collection of the 
hearth money, and the conclusion at which he arrived was 
that the population of England was nearly 5,500,000. We 
find that the number of houses in Wales (excluding 
Monmouthshire) according to the Hearth Book of 1690 
was 77,921. Assuming that on a general average every 
house so returned contained five persons, the population of 
Wales amounted to 389,605. If we add this number to 
the population of England, we get a total of 5,889,605, or 
nearly six millions. So the population of Wales (excluding 
Monmouthshire) was then a little more than one-fifteenth 
of that of England and Wales, and if Monmouthshire be 
added on this basis to Wales, the population of Wales 
plus Monmouthshire would come out at nearly one- 
fourteenth of that of England and Wales.'^ 

^ App. to Report, p. 272. 2 /5/(^_ 

3 See King's "Natural and Political Observations" (1696). A second 
calculation was made on the basis of returns made to William III. as to the 



XX INTRODUCTION. 

For periods earlier than the end of the seventeenth 
century, estimates of the population of this country are 
still more speculative. McCulloch puts the population of 
England and Wales at the time of the Domesday survey 
at 2,150,000.^ Thorold Rogers came to the conclusion 
that from the fourteenth to nearly the end of the six- 
teenth century, it could not have exceeded two to two- 
and-a-half millions. He bases this opinion partly on the 
postulate that the number of persons in a country, chiefl}^ 
subsisting on one kind of grain, will be almost exactly 
equal to the number of quarters of wheat which is annually 
produced, and on the estimate that during that time the 
maximum produce of wheat in any one year could not 
have been more than the higher figure just given ; and 
partly on the direct evidence of taxing rolls, and especially 
records of poll taxes.- We have seen that the ratio of 
the population of Wales and Monmouthshire to that of 
the whole of England and Wales, on Gregory King's 
estimate, was in 1690, ri4. If we assume that ratio 
to have been constant (except for slight and temporary 
variations) from the beginning of the fourteenth century 
to the time of Elizabeth, and adopt the higher limit given 



number of the adherents of the different rehgioiis denominations, and it puts 
the population of England and Wales at 5,200,000. (Macaulay, " Hist, of 
England," c. 3.) The third important estimate is that of Finlaison, who, 
after subjecting the ancient parochial registers to modern tests, calculates 
that towards the close of the seventeenth century the number was a little 
under 5,200,000. (See Population Returns, 1831; Macaulay, 7ibi supra; 
Lecky's "Hist, of England in the Eighteenth Century," i., p 197; 
Macpherson's "Annals of Commerce," ii. 68, 634, 674, and iii. 134). 

' McCulloch's "Statistical Account of the British Empire" (1847), ^'°^- i- 
p. 396. Mr. York Powell estimates the population in the area covered by 
the survey at 2,000,000 : " Social England," vol. i. p. 240. Mr. A. L. Smith 
puts it at the same figure : Ibid., p. 357. 

' "Dictionary of English History" (Lond. 1SS5), art. Population. See 
too, Rogers' " History of Agriculture and Prices in England," vol. i. pp. 50 
et seq.; and " England's Industrial and Commercial Supremacy," pp. 44-64. 



INTRODUCTION. xxi 

by Thorold Rogers — 2,500,000, the population of Wales 
and Monmouthshire could not during that period have 
been greater than about 178,000. 

We are, however, not justified in assuming that the ratio 
I "14 truly represents the proportion of the inhabitants of 
Wales and Monmouthshire to that of England and Wales 
at the time of the Edwardian conquest in 1282, or even in 
the sixteenth century. We could do so safely only if we 
found that the economic development of the two areas had 
proceeded at equal rates. The facts, however, indicate 
that this was not the case before the end of the great war. 
For instance, the total acreage of Wales and Monmouth- 
shire is 5,121,013;^ in 1795 the waste area was 1,696,827 
acres" — that is, more than one-third of the whole was wild 
and uninclosed. The mountainous character and the 
climatic conditions place the country at a disadvantage 
in regard to the production of cereals as compared with 
the greater part of England, and the progress of agriculture 
was very slow until the beginning of this century. These 
and other considerations-'' lead us to believe that the 
population of Wales and Monmouthshire in comparison 
with that of England and Wales in 1282 was proportionally 
smaller than it is to-day, and that the rate of its increase 
has been slower than that of England and Wales as a 
whole. We think, therefore, that the population of Wales 
and Monmouthshire at the end of the thirteenth century 
was not greater than 150,000,* and if McCulloch's estimate 
as to the number at the time of the Domesday survey is 
fairly accurate, it was still less in the eleventh century. 

1 Report, p. 672. 

2 App. to Report, p. 214. 

3 E.g. The non-existence of any large towns. Cardiff (which had in 
1891 a population of 128,915) had only 1,870 inhabitants according to the 
census of 1801. 

•• Thorold Rogers places it as low as 131,040. " England's Ind. and Coram. 
Supremacy," p. 48. 



xxii INTRODUCTION. 

No attempt to estimate the population of Wales or of 
the western part of the island at times earlier than the 
Norman Conquest can be made with success, for we have 
no materials at all on which to base any exact calculation. 
Giraldus, writing at the end of the twelfth century, says : — 
"For as the mountains of Eryri could supply pasturage for 
all the herds of cattle in Wales if collected together, so 
could the Isle of Mon provide a requisite quantity of corn 
for all the inhabitants ; on which account there is an old 
British proverb, ' Mon mam Gymru,' that is, ' Mon the 
mother of Wales. ' "^ If the saying was then really old and 
this explanation is correct, we may infer that in the far distant 
days of Cuneda and Cadwaladr the population was very 
scanty. In any case the notion which was formerly widely 
entertained, and still lingers in some quarters, that Wales 
was in early times very populous is quite unfounded. 

It is, however, not only in regard to their numbers in the 
past that the view popularly taken of their own history by 
the Welsh is erroneous. It is not easy to state briefly, and 
at the same time quite accurately, the current theory ; but 
we think it may be fairly expressed thus : That they are 
the descendants of a great homogeneous nation called 
Cymry or Britons (now referred to as Ancient Britons) ; 
that in distant centuries they formed a mighty state or 
empire, the dominions of which comprised not only Britain 
but larger territories on the Continent as well ; that they 
were ruled over by a line of illustrious kings which stretched 
up to Brutus, son of .^neas, and from him to Noah, who 
ordered the world anew after the Deluge ; but that they, 
owing to unsuccessful wars, bad government, and all sorts 
of mischances, lost not only their continental possessions, 
but also the Crown of Britain ; and at last became confined 
in what is now Cymru, and reduced into subjection through 
the " fraud and rapacity " of the Saxon. 

' Giraldus Cambrensis, " Descriptio," i. c. 6. 



INTRODUCTION. xxiii 

Now all this is not mere nonsense, and as to every 
proposition that goes to make up this bundle of historical 
ideas there is some sound basis of fact. It is true that the 
determining element in the composition of the Cymry of 
what is now Wales was Brythonic ; that the Brythons 
belonged to a Celtic race which, before Caesar's time, had 
spread over more than half this island and a considerable 
part of the Continent ; that there were many British kings 
who were very important in their day, and who had long 
and well-known pedigrees ; and that a confederation of 
Celtic tribes — Brythonic and Goidelic — did most stubbornly 
resist the Teutonic tribes which invaded the island and 
settled in it after the departure of the Roman legions, and 
that for a long time it maintained its domination in the 
western half of Britain. Yet the representation of the 
early history of the Welsh given by the theory we have 
summarised makes a picture in which things and persons 
are exaggerated and distorted, and by adopting it the chain 
of events is thrown out of gear — that is, if our conclusions 
are correct. For we feel bound to repeat, in regard to the 
Brythons and the Cymry, what a famous Greek historian 
said about the Hellenes, that judging from the evidence 
which we are able to trust, "after most careful inquiry," 
we should imagine that " past ages were not great either 
in wars or anything else." 

So far as we can make out, the beginning of the history 
of the Cymry, considered as a separate and independent 
nation, must be associated with the migration into what is 
now North Wales of a Brythonic tribe, whose chief was 
Cuneda Wledig, and which came from the North. This 
invasion took place not long after the time when the Roman 
occupation ceased. Before this, however, there were both 
Goidels and Brythons in Wales. A glance at the map 
of Roman Britain below will show the relative positions 
of these two Celtic races. The former were settled over 



xxiv INTRODUCTION. 

a part of North Wales and nearly the whole of the South, 
while the latter had spread over the central area to the 
coast ; but we must add that there were in the same parts 
besides these Celts certain non-Aryan elements, which 
must be looked on as aboriginal, though more or less 
completely assimilated by the first Celtic conquerors. 
This was the position when Cuneda, who seems to have 
assumed the authority of the Roman military officer 
called the Dux Britannice, established his rule over Wales, 
and united the Celtic tribes of the west of Britain into 
a kind of confederation under his leadership, which was 
soon forced to defend the land against divers streams of 
Teutonic settlers, and which under his successors for a 
long time struggled to retain its supremacy. 

It was during this contest that the term Cyniro (which 
means compatriot), became a national name covering 
the members of all the Celtic tribes and kindreds who 
acknowledged the over-lordship of the line of Cuneda. 
Such, if the matter is looked at, not through the mists of 
Neo-Druidism or the bright yet delusive atmosphere of 
mediaeval romance, but in the clearer light of the evidence 
afforded by inscriptions, language, laws, and reasonably 
trustworthy chroniclers, seems to us the true conclusion 
as to the origin of the Cymry. If we are right, the Welsh 
people of to-day have the satisfaction of knowing that they 
are not the decayed and disconsolate remnant of a once 
great nation, but that in the main they are the descendants 
of Celtic races which though absorbed into the English 
polity, after a prolonged struggle for independence, have 
steadil)' progressed by the side of their conquerors in 
regard to all that goes to make up civilisation, and by 
combining an obstinate vitality with a certain happ)- power 
of adapting themselves to new circumstances, have suc- 
ceeded in retaining their language and some of the best 
characteristics of their ancestors, 



INTRODUCTION. xxv 

We are well aware that there are grave imperfections 
in our treatment of many of the problems we discuss. 
We have, however, tried to give them true solutions, ever 
keeping before our minds the motto of the new-born 
University of Wales — Goreu awen gwirioned {Optima inusa 
Veritas). That we have, as to every point, succeeded we 
do not of course assert ; and indeed we advance our con- 
clusions on controverted questions in no dogmatic spirit, 
but in tentative fashion, though we cannot always be saying 
so in the text. Nor do we present this collection of 
chapters as a history of the Welsh people, but rather as 
a contribution to such a work, which may be useful to 
students at our national colleges and to others who are 
seriously interested in things Welsh. Yet there is a con- 
necting thread of purpose running through the- book, as 
will be seen by a brief description of the subject-matter 
of each chapter. 

In the first, second, and third chapters we deal with 
the ethnology and origin of the Cymry, and in order to 
justify and explain our views, discuss minutely some of 
the questions connected with the so-called " Picts " and 
the distribution of tribes in this island during the Roman 
occupation. Having shown that the Cymry emerge as a 
separate nation under the rule of Cuneda and his descen- 
dants when that occupation ceased, we pass on to state 
very briefly in the fourth chapter their history down to the 
death of Cadwaladr, when their kingdom in its more 
extensive sense came to an end. In the next (the fifth) 
chapter we treat of the history of Wales from that time 
to the Norman Conquest of England. Then we stop to 
describe the legal organisation and social condition of the 
Cymry in the tenth and the immediately succeeding 
centuries. In the seventh chapter we describe the way in 
which the greater part of Wales was gradually conquered 
by the Normans, and sketch the history of the last and 

W.P. c 



xxvi INTRODUCTION. 

greatest Cymric principality to its transference by conquest 
to Edward I. From this event the history of the Welsh in 
regard to wars, foreign policy, and general affairs becomes 
so merged into that of Great Britain that it is hardly 
susceptible of separate treatment in a continuous narrative 
form. They have, however, a particular history as to many 
of the institutions, conditions, and activities, that create 
or maintain the life of a nation. It is with some of these 
things that our eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth 
chapters are concerned. There we try to show how, for 
nearly all purposes of government, Wales has become 
organised in the same way as England ; how the old 
Cymric tribal notions of land-holding and administration 
(which became by natural and easy stages very like to 
those of the feudal system) gradually disappeared under 
the influence of Norman- English officials, and by degrees 
developed into the land tenure of to-day ; how a religious 
movement commencing in the sixteenth century culmi- 
nated in a great revival in the eighteenth, and brought 
about the predominance of Nonconformity in the Welsh 
counties, the preservation and growth of Cymraeg, and 
an intellectual renaissance ; and how this movement in its 
turn created a demand for schools and colleges, which has 
resulted in the formation of a system of Welsh public 
education as perfect as any to be found in the United 
Kingclom. After that we pass on to give some information 
as to the language and literature of the Welsh ; and finally 
in the thirteenth chapter we attempt to exhibit the charac- 
teristic features of the most typical classes of the population 
of the Principality in our own day. 



THE WELSH PEOPLE. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 

In this chapter we propose to state briefly what com- 
parative philology and ethnology have to say as to the 
races of ancient Britain, especially those to be found in 
what is now Wales, and what admixture has taken place 
there in later times. 

Archaeologists who have studied the contents of the 
ancient barrows or burial mounds of this country find that 
the human remains which they detect in them belong to 
more than one race. The barrows of the earliest date are 
long, and yield long skulls, while the round barrows, which 
are later, show the remains of a short-skulled people ; but 
the round barrows sometimes contain long skulls as well 
as short ones, a fact which suggests that the conquerors 
began early to intermarry with the conquered population. 
Looking at the same order of questions from the point of 
view of language, one may say, that the first race as to whose 
presence in this country in ancient times there can be no 
manner of doubt is the Celtic ; and it is also a matter 
admitting of no philological doubt, that the Celts of the 
British Isles were Aryans, speaking related languages 
which fall into two groups, the Goidelic and th Brythonic. 
The Goidelic group embraces at the present day the Gaelic 

W.P. B 



2 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

of Ireland, of the Isle of Man, and of Scotland. The 
Brythonic group, on the other hand, is now represented 
by Welsh, and the Armoric dialects of Brittany or 
ILydaw. To this group also belonged old Cornish, which 
has been extinct as a spoken language for somewhat over 
a century. 

These two groups of Goidelic and Brythonic languages 
may be regarded as variations of two ancient tongues, 
Goidelic and Brythonic respectively, which differed from 
one another somewhat in the same way as Latin and 
the Umbro-Samnite dialects of ancient Italy. Thus the 
Goidelic for ivho is in Manx Gaelic qaei, quoi, but in Welsh 
pivy : compare Latin qui, quis, Oscan pis, accusative pirn. 
Similarly the Goidelic for five is in Manx qiieig, but in 
V^c\s\i piuNp (and pijup^) : compare Latin qjiinqjie, whence 
the derivatives quintus, " fifth," Qnintiis (for quinchis, 
Qiihictiis), and Qia'ncttus, Qiiintiiis, which we have as an 
Oscan name in no/ATrrus, Latinised Poinpthts, and Pontius, 
as in the well-known name of the Samnite Po7itius Pilate. 
This distinction of qii and / is, it is needless to say, only 
one of the differences which must have existed between 
early Goidelic and early Brythonic ; but it has the advan- 
tage of forming a conspicuous and decisive mark wherever 
it happens to occur. Nobody, however, supposes that qit 
and p are equally original here : qii is the older, and where 
its equivalent occurs as/, this last is to be regarded as a 
simplification of the qii, but the simplification appears to 
date very early. Thus a Roman inscription- at Hexham 
was set up in honour of a god called therein Apollini 
Mapojio, where Mapono may be regarded as cognate with 

' Pimp, "five," and pimphet, "fifth," occur among the old Welsh glosses 
in ^he Bodleian manuscript, Auct. F. 4 — 32 ("(Jram. Celtica," p. 1060, and 
"Transactions of the Philological Society," 1860-1, p. 237), and the regular 
spelling in modern Welsh would be pytup and pymed, which represent the 
actual pronunciation in the spoken language of must of South Wales. 

- See the Ijerlin "Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum," vol. vii.. No. 1345. 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 3 

a Brythonic or Gaulish nominative, Mapoiio-s} a word 
which in old Welsh would have been mapoit, now maboii, 
" a boy or youth," derived from the simple form maj>, now 
mad, " a boy or son." This is in Irish 7nacc or mac, for an 
early Goidelic maqua-s, genitive maqin, which occurs 
frequently in the Ogam inscriptions of Britain and Ireland.- ' 

All this, however, only takes us back at most to the Roman 
occupation, but, as a matter of fact, we have no data from 
a time when Brythons and Gauls had not already made 
qii into/; and the question arises which of the two groups 

' In Gaulish the nominatives corresponding to those in ns and ttm (like 
domhuis, regmim in Latin) ended in os and on respectively, as in Greek, and 
where the declension is fairly certain we shall write them so ; but Latin autho- 
rities using us in two declensions leave us sometimes unable to decide between 
the o and u stems. In that case we shall follow the Latin in using us. 

- Speaking more precisely, Ogam inscriptions occur (i) in Wales, mostly {^ 

South Wales, but North Wales has one, found in the parish of Clocaenog, in 
the neighbourhood of Ruthin ; (2) in Devon and Cornwall, and one remarkable 
instance occurs at Silchester, in Hampshire ; (3) in Ireland, mostly in the south 
of that country ; (4) in the Isle of Man ; and (5) in Scotland, including Orkney 
and Shetland, but these are mostly late in comparison with the bulk of the 
others. The older Ogam characters consist of scores or notches on the 
edge of the stones used, and the following is the alphabet of the most ancient 
monuments, with the continuous line representing the edge of the stone 
inscribed : — 



JI, d, t, c qii 

I II III III! Hill 
I II III nil Hill 

M, g, ng, f, r ; 



_^l I I 111 I I I I I MM 
r II II I MM Mill 
A, 0, n, e, z. 



The classification of the vowels into broad and slender suggests that the 
inventor was a grammarian ; and the group which stands second in the usual 
arrangement was probably the first to be fixed, as it is found that h, d, t, c, qit, 
represent the initials of the Goidelic words for i, 2, 3, 4, 5, in the oldest forms 
which can be inferred for them, thus : —a hbina-, a dtwii, a ttri-. a ccetiior, 
aqqtieqqite. See Rhys's " Outlines of tlie Phonology of Manx Gaelic " (in vol. 
xxxiii. of the Publications of the Manx Society), p. 73, also pp. 41, 58, 59, 60, 
88, 102, 178. 

B 2 



4 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

of Celts, Brythons or Goidels, came here first, and also 
whence they came. The answer to this latter question 
must be, that in all probability they first came from the 
nearest part of the Continent, from the land where the bulk 
of the Celts dwelt in the time of Caesar, namely, Gaul, 
comprising ancient France, Belgium, Switzerland, and 
North Italy, also parts of Spain. To the question of the 
order of their coming the answer is sufficiently indicated 
by the relative positions of the peoples speaking Goidelic 
and Brythonic respectively at the present day. For it may 
be regarded as fairly certain that those who are found 
driven furthest to the west were the earlier comers, namely 
the Goidels. 

Goidelic was a phase of the language of the Celta; in 
Caesar's restricted use of that word, and we may, in this 
context, call the language Goidelo-Celtic orCeltican ;^ but 
we must suppose its place, at any rate as a dominant 
speech on the Continent, to have been taken by Gaulish 
some time anterior to Caesar's Gallic wars. Gaulish 
belonged to the same group as Brythonic ; or, to be more 
exact, Brythonic may be treated as the Gaulish spoken in 
Britain, as we shall see presently. Both may be, however, 
included under the term Galatic or Galato-Celtic. 

The ancient distinction of speech belween the Celts 
implies a corresponding difference of race and institutions, 
a difference existing indeed long before Celts of any 
description came to these islands. Perhaps few matters 
of prehistoric archaeology have recently been more dis- 
cussed than the distinction between Celticans or Celts of 
the older stock and the Galatic warriors by whom the)- 
were largely conquered. The two peoples are found to 
have differed in their inanner of disposing of their dead, 
and each had weapons characteristic of its own civilisation. 

' See the "Transactions of the (London) Pliilological Society " for 1S91-3, 
pp. 104, 105. 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 5 

The interments with the most important remains of the 
older stock are found mostly in the neighbourhood of the 
Alps, including the upper portions of the basin of the 
Danube and the plains of North Italy.^ This older Celtic 
world began, about the sixth century B.C., to be invaded 
by the Galatic Celts, whose home may be inferred to have 
consisted of Central and Northern Germany and of Belgium; 
and the remains of these Galatic Celts are to be studied in 
the great burial-places between the Seine, the Marne, and 
the Rhine — in the country, in short, from which they 
invaded Britain. It has been surmised that this movement 
was begun by the Brythons between the time of Pytheas, 
in the fourth century B.C., and the visits of Julius Caesar. 
The latter mentions, ii. 4, a certain Diviciacos, king of 
the Suessiones, a Beigic people which has left its name to 
Soissons, as the most powerful prince in Gaul and as ruling 
also over Britain. This was, moreover, late enough to be 
within the memory of men living in Caesar's time. We 
have also Caesar's general statement as to the settlers from 
Gaul, that they belonged to the Belgae or the tribes 
inhabiting Belgium, by which he meant, roughly speaking, 
the tract between the Seine and the Rhine and between 
the sea and the tributary waters of the Marne and the 
Moselle; also that their settlements here were known by the 
names which they already had on the Continent. This is 
borne out by those names themselves where they happen 
to be recorded. Thus the Atrebates, whose chief town 
was Calleva, supposed to be the site of Silchester, in Hamp- 
shire, probably came from the Atrebates of the Continent, 
where that name of theirs has been worn down to Arras, 
in the Pas de Calais. Then, as to the tribe called Belgae, 

' For the most recent and comprehensive account of this chapter in Cehic 
archeology, see Bertrand and Reinach's voUimes " Nos Origines," especially 
vol. ii., entitled "Les Celtes dans les Vallees du Poet du Danube" (Paris, 1894), 
pp. ii., 42, 180, 181. To this work, with its numerous illustrations, we are 
much indebted. 



6 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

who appear to have once been important enough to impose 
their name on a whole group of peoples on the Continent, 
they seem to have come over here in a body, leaving to the 
Germans their old home in a country now indicated by 
such a place-name as that of Rillig, in the government 
of Cologne, and that of Wasser-Bi/Zig, near where the 
Sauer joins the waters of the Moselle. In Britain the 
people called Belg?e took possession of a tract which 
included the sites of the towns now called Winchester and 
Bath. Similarly the Parisi of the south-east of what is 
now Yorkshire occupied a country which is remarkable 
for its interments, containing as they do remains of the 
iron war-chariots used by the conquerors. They were 
probably a division of the Parisii, who have left their name 
to the city of Paris, on the Seine. The first of the Belgic 
peoples to cross over to this country were probably those 
who dwelt nearest to it, namely, on the other side of the 
Straits of Dover. These appear to have been called 
Brittani or Brittones, whom Pliny ^ seems to have found 
so called in the valley of the Somme : the name of a town 
of theirs is duly perpetuated by that of the village of 
Bretagne, near the mouth of that river. In our country 
the history of their name was probably the following : 
from being exclusively that of the first settlers it came to 
be extended to the successive hordes, so that at the last 
it actually denoted all the settlers here of Belgic descent ; 
and we have probably to look for the Brittani proper under 
the geographical appellation of Cantii, or people of Cantion 
— "Kent." In its form of Brittones it yields in Welsh the 
name BrytJion, "a Briton or Welshman," and in its form of 
Brittani it yields the Irish plural Bretain {'^qx\\\\vq Bretan), 
" Brythons or Britons, also their country." The prevalent 

' See Detlefsen's Pliny, " Historia Naturalis," iv. io6 : A Scaldi iiicolunt 
extera Texuandti phiribits iioi/iinibus, dein Alenapi, Morini ora Marsacis 
jitncti pago qui Chersiacus vocatur, Briianni, Ambiani, Bellovaci. Bassi. 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 7 

spelling in Latin appears to have been Britanni ; but the 
related forms, and among them the French Brelagne, show 
that it ought to have been written with //. 

Without enumerating the Belgic tribes which constituted 
the Brythonic group of Celts in this country, suffice it to 
say that the whole of the coast on the east and south was 
probably occupied by them from the Isle of Wight to the 
Firth of Forth. But how far inland they had overrun the 
country by the time of the Roman occupation, it is impos- 
sible to say with any precision. We have, however, in 
the Itinerary of Antoninus, evidence of their presence as 
far west as Staffordshire, to wit, in the name of the 
station of Pennocnicion, which is now represented letter 
for letter by Penkridge. The form in the Itinerary is the 
dative-ablative Pennocnicio, derived from the stem penno, 
represented in Welsh hy pen, "end, extremity, head," early 
Goidelic qiienna, whence Irish ceann, " end, head," and crucio, 
Welsh crug, " a heap or tumulus." So the whole compound, 
had it been Goidelic, would have been Qiiennacnicio in 
the Itinerary. But as that is not the case, we know that 
we have here to do with Brythons, not with Goidels. The 
spot was comprised probably in the territory of the Cornovii, 
who may accordingly be supposed to have been Brythons. 
Behind them towards the west were the Ordovices, who 
were also probably Brythons, though we have no exactly 
similar evidence to prove it ; but we can account best for 
the facts which we have at our disposal, if we suppose 
the Ordovices to have divided what is now Wales into two 
parts, as it were with a wedge, and to have reached the 
shores of Cardigan Bay. Beyond the Ordovices, towards 
the south, the country was occupied by the Silures and the 
Denietae, neither of whom can be supposed to have been 
Brythons, for their territory supplies inscriptions in Goidelic 
dating some time after the departure of the Romans, 
Similarly beyond the Ordovices in a northern and north- 



8 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

western direction in the country called Venedot, later 
Gvvyned, there were likewise peoples who cannot have been 
Brythons, as is proved more or less explicitly by inscriptions 
found there showing traces of Goidelic. 

We have some aid to the understanding of the early 
history of the tract of country which we may loosely call 
Mid-Wales in the dialects of Welsh actually spoken there. 
Welsh dialects are commonly treated as three : (i) the Givyn- 
dodeg, or Venedotian Welsh ; (2) the Powyseg, or Welsh of 
Powys ; and (3) the Southvvalian, consisting of the closely 
connected Gzvenliwyseg (Gwentian or Silurian Welsh) and 
the Demetian or Welsh of Dyfed. But this is of little use 
as regards Mid- Wales, for the facts are briefly as follows : — 
The Demetian reaches northwards as far as the stream of 
the Wyrai at ILanrhystud, a little south of Aberystwyth, 
in Cardiganshire. North of the Wyrai and of Strata Florida 
the dialect is very distinct from the Demetian, and still 
more so from the contiguous dialect of the counties of 
Merioneth and Montgomery ; but, on the other hand, it 
resembles that of Penityn as represented by Bala and other 
places in the neighbourhood of Bala Lake. We may add 
that the same dialect embraces, without any sudden varia- 
tion, the Welsh of the Dee valley and some of the northern 
portion of Montgomeryshire. The inference to be drawn 
is probably this: at one time a uniform dialect prevailed 
in the region of Mid-Wales comprising North Cardigan- 
shire, Radnorshire, Montgomeryshire, and the south-east of 
Denbighshire. Its northern boundary was probably the 
river Mawdach, the northern watershed of the Dee, and 
eventually^ the Clwyd and the Dee Estuary. The area 
indicated may be said to represent the conquests and 
settlements of the Ordovices. Later, however — not long 
probabl)- after the departure of the Romans from Britain — 
another people came on the scene and established its own 
dialect in a great part of the Ordovic territory, but so as to 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 9 

leave the marginal districts of North Cardiganshire and 
Penftyn in the continued use of their old Ordovic speech. 
The intruding dialect, which severed them, is now no other 
than the Welsh of Powys, which prevails in Montgomery- 
shire and on the coast of Merionethshire from the river 
Dovey to Dolgettey and Harlech. It was introduced 
probably by Cuneda Wledig and his Sons, that is to say, 
by the people whose princes are collectively known to 
Welsh history and hagiology by that designation. 

Now Cuneda was the ancestor to whom the kings of 
Gwyned traced their origin, and most of the best-known 
saints of Wales are represented as his descendants. The 
legend ^ of Cuneda represents him and his sons coming to 
Wales from the North, where he appears to have been at 
the head of a force of cavalry defending the Roman wall, 
and to have filled the post of the military leader, who, 
during the Roman occupation, used to be known as the 
Dzix Brita7ini(B or Dux Britaniiiariun. The legend further 
represents Cuneda and his Sons as engaged in Wales in 
the expulsion of the Goidels ; so we may suppose that the 
Ordovices had been hard pressed by the Goidels on both 
sides of them, and that they had appealed for aid to 
Cuneda, who accordingly sent a force under the command 
of his sons to combat the Goidels. However that may 
be, Cuneda's men must have permanently settled in the 
country, and so did his sons, as we are told, except the 
eldest, who is said to have died some time before in Manau 
Guotodin, a district near the Firth of Forth. The share of 
the eldest son was given to his son Meirion, from whom 
it was called Cantref Meirion, "the Hundred of Meirion," 
which in its turn has given its name to Meirionyd and the 
county of Merioneth. This Hundred of Meirion, as the 

' See San Marte's " Nennius,"§ 62, and the Harleian MS. 3859, published 
by Mr. Egerton Phillimore in " Y Cymmrodor," ix. 182, also Rhys's 'f^ Celtic 
Britain," pp. 1 18-21. 



10 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

dominion of the eldest branch of the Cuneda family, is 
probably what was sometimes called simply Y Cantref} 
" the Hundred." It was also that which an old tract on 
boundaries calls Cantref Orttiuyf, which possibly meant 
the Hundred of the Ordovices, extending from the Dovey 
to the Mawdach, the southern boundary of Ardudwy, which 
belonged to Gwyned.- Now Meirion, grandson of Cuneda, 
as chief of the family, assigns to his uncles the sons of 
Cuneda, their respective territories, and the list of them 
purports to represent the Brythonic conquests made by the 
family in various directions, including the carving out of 
Keredig's kingdom of Kercdigion, which is, roughly speak- 
ing, the present county of Cardigan. Other members of 
the family have different parts of Gwyned, including Mon 
or Anglesey, assigned to them in this legend. One of the 
branches of the Cuneda family established in Gwyned 
became in the sixth century so powerful, to wit in the 
person of Maglocunos or Maelgwn Gwyned, that not only 
Wales, but also Cumbria, was, to a certain extent, forced to 
own his sway ; and it was perhaps in his time that the 
Hundred of Meirion first became a part of Gwyned. 

We have suggested that the Brythons came over to Britain 
between the time of Pytheas and that of Julius Caesar. 
Their invasions probably spread over a considerable period 
of time, but we should perhaps not be far wrong in ascribing 
the mass of them to the second century before our era.' 
When, it may be asked, did the other Celts, the Goidels, 

' .See the " lolo MSS." (Landovery, 1848), pp. 85, 86, translated at 
pp. 475-7, but with serious errors ; also pp. 120, 519: and Rhys's "Celtic 
Britain," pp. 302, 303. 

- See the Mabinogi of Math, in which Math has the disposal of Ardudwy, 
probably as king of Gwyne, Oxford Mabinogion, p. 73. 

•* See M. d'Arbois de Jubainville's " Premiers Habitants de I'Europe, " 
vol. ii., p. 295, where he expresses himself to the same effect, also in the 
" Revue Celtique," vol. xiii., p. 402 ; see also Holder's " Alt-CeltischerSprach- 
schatz," S.V., Brittani. Both, however, make the Brythons conquer this island 
from the Picts, not from Goidels. 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. ii 

whom they found here, arrive in this country ? It is impos- 
sible to give any precise answer to such a question, but it 
may be supposed that the Goidels came over not later than 
the great movements which took place in the Celtic world 
of the Continent in the sixth and fifth centuries before our 
era.i We mean the movements which resulted in the Celts 
reaching the Mediterranean and penetrating into Spain, 
while others of the same family began to press towards the 
east of Europe, whence some of them eventually crossed to 
Asia Minor and made themselves a home in the country 
called after them Galatia. On the whole, we dare not 
suppose the Goidels to have come to Britain much later 
than the sixth century B.C. ; rather should we say that they 
probably began to arrive in this country earlier. Before 
the Brythons came the Goidels had presumably occupied 
most of the island south of the firths of the Clyde and 
Forth. So when the Brythons arrived and began to press 
the Goidels in the west some of the latter may have 
crossed to Ireland : possibly they had begun still earlier 
to settle there. The portion of Ireland which they first 
occupied was probably the tract known as the kingdom 
of Meath, approximately represented now by the diocese 
of that name ; but settlements may have also been made 
by them at other points on the coast. 

We have next to consider the question whether the first 
Celtic comers, the Goidels, were also the first inhabitants 
of this country. This may be briefly answered to the 
effect that there seems to be no reason to think so, or even 
to suppose that it may not have been uninterruptedly 
inhabited from a time before it ceased to form a continuous 
portion of the continent of Europe. By what race is a 
much harder question. Indeed, there is a previous question 

1 See the " Premiers Habitants de TEurope," vol. i. , p. 262, and Zimmer's 
" Mutterreclit der Pikten," in the " Zeitschrift fiir Rechtsgeschichte," vol. xv. 
(Rcim. Abth.), pp. 233, 234. 



12 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

which might reasonably be asked, namely, Was it a single 
race or several ? This cannot be answered, but it would 
clearly be a waste of conjecture to suppose the pre-Goidelic 
inhabitants to have belonged to more than one race, until 
at any rate evidence is found to compel us to that conclu- 
sion. So we rest satisfied for the present to assume that 
they belonged to a single race ; and we proceed to consider, 
very briefly, the nature of the relation in which that race is 
likely to have found itself placed as regards the new-comers. 
It is but natural to suppose that the Goidels, when they 
arrived, subjugated the natives, and made slaves of them 
and drudges. From the first the fusion of the two races 
may have begun to take place, but to what extent it pro- 
ceeded it would be impossible to say. It is, however, 
fairly certain that the process of fusion between the Goidelic 
and native elements must have been quickened by the 
advent of a third and hostile element, the Brythonic. For 
it must have been to the advantage of the Goidels to have 
induced the natives to make common cause with them 
against the intruders ; and under the pressure exerted by 
the Brythons the fusion of the two other nations may have 
been so complete as to produce a new people of mixed 
Goidelic and native origin. To be more correct, perhaps, 
we- ought to have restricted the term Goidelic to that mixed 
nationalily, and applied some other designation, such as 
Celtican, to the early Celtic invaders of the island before 
they mixed with the Aborigines of these islands. Then as 
to the Brythons, coming last as they did, they had the 
Goidels between them and the Aborigines, and they were not 
likely to come in contact on any large scale with the latter 
before they had been to a considerable extent Celticised.^ 

' Except pt-rliaps in the Nditli, wliere, fur cxanii)le, tlie I'icto-Brythons of 
Fortreiin, with their iieadquarters eventually at Furteviot, on the banks of the 
Earn, seem to have spoken a kind of Brythonic. But that dialect is unknown 
with the exception of a few words like Pean faliel, given by Bede ("Hist. 
Eccles." i. 12) as the vernacular for the Wall'i End. 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 13 

Accordingly, supposing the Aborigines not to have been 
Aryans, one might expect the language of the resultant 
Goidelic people to show more non-Aryan traits than the 
language of the Brythons : as a matter of fact, this proves 
to be the case. 

The Goidels have already been represented as a mixed 
race, and when later this mixed Goidelic population became 
one people with the Brythons, the result was still more 
composite ; and one may say that the Welsh people of the 
present day is made up of all three elements : the Aboriginal, 
the Goidelic, and the Brythonic. And it would be unsafe 
to assume that the later elements predominate ; for the 
Celtic invaders, both Goidels and Brythons, may have 
come in comparatively small numbers, not to mention the 
fact that the Aboriginal race, having been here possibly 
thousands of years before the first Aryan arrived, may have 
had such an advantage in the matter of acclimatisation, 
that it alone survives in force. This is now supposed to be 
the case with France, whose people, taken in the bulk, are 
neither Frankish nor Celtic so much as the representatives 
of the non-Aryan populations which the first Aryans found 
there. It thus becomes a matter of interest for us to know 
all we can about the earliest inhabitants of this country. 
Now the Question of the origin of that race is, according to 
one view taken of it, inseparably connected with the Pictish 
question ; and the most tenable hypothesis may be said to 
be, that the Picts were non-Aryans, whom the first Celtic 
migrations found already settled here. The Picts appear 
to have retained their language and institutions latest on 
the east coast of Scotland in portions of the region between 
Clackmannan and Banff But Irish literature alludes to 
Picts here and there in Ireland, and that in such a way as 
to favour the belief that they were survivals of a race holding 
possession at one time of the whole country. If the Picts were 
not Aryans, we could hardly suppose them to have been 



14 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

able to acquire possession of extensive tracts of these islands 
after the arrival of such a powerful and warlike race as the 
early Aryans. The natural conclusion is, that the Picts 
were here before the Aryans came, that they were, in fact, 
the Aborigines. 

Now something is known of the manners and customs of 
the ancient Picts ; for one of them at least was so remark- 
able as to attract the attention of the ancient authors who 
mention the peoples of this country. It was the absence 
among them of the institution of marriage as known to 
men of Aryan race. This is illustrated by the history of 
the Picts in later times, especially in the case of their kings, 
for it is well known that a Pictish king could not be 
succeeded by a son of his own, but usuall}" by a sister's 
son. The succession was through the mother, and it points 
back to a state of society which, previous to the conver- 
sion of the Picts to Christianity, was probably based on 
matriarch}' as distinguished from marriage and marital 
authority. Accordingly the Greeks and Romans vvho have 
touched on the manners and customs of the Picts show 
clearly that they could not understand the relations of the 
sexes among peoples of that race, except as mere licence 
and wanton promiscuity. Among others may be mentioned 
Dion Cassius, who in writing (Ixxvi. i6) about the wars of 
the Emperor Severus introduces, for the evident benefit of 
Roman women, a Pictish lady, who replies to the strictures 
of Julia, the Emperor's wife, on Pictish morality, to the 
effect that she thought the Pictish custom the better, since, 
as she said, Pictish ladies openly consorted with the best 
warriors of the race, while Roman matrons privily com- 
mitted adultery with the vilest of men. Further the 
Pictish succession cannot have always been confined to the 
Pictland of the North, ^ for the ancient literature of Ireland 

' Since writing the above we have come across a passage showing that the 
same kind of siiccessiun once prevailed at Tara : see the Place-name Sfory of 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 15 

abounds in allusions to heroes who are usually described 
with the aid of the mother's name. Take the case of 
Conchobar mac Nessa, " Conor son of Nessa " (his mother), 
Diarmait Ua Duibne, "Dermot descendant of Dubinn" (his 
ancestress), not to mention the gods called Tiiatha De 
Danami, " the tribes of the goddess Danu or Donu," which 
Do7iii appears also in the old literature of Wales, to wit 
as Do7i in the names of such personages as " Gwydion 
son of Don," " Arianrhod daughter of Don," and others of 
the same family, all placed by the Mabinogion on the 
northern coast of Gwyned. This kind of nomenclature 
implies the Pictish succession as its origin, and probably 
all that such origin implied. If the Aryans ever had 
this kind of custom, a view which is not universally 
accepted, it was probably so very far back that we 
could not with any confidence invoke it to explain 
these designations and others like them ; so we are 
inclined to regard them as having originated in non- 
Aryan surroundings. 

The same conclusion as to the probable non-Aryan 
origin of the Picts is warranted by facts of another order, 
namely, those of speech ; but the Pictish question is 
rendered philologically difficult by the scantiness of the 
remains of the Pictish language. It would seem to have 
been rapidly becoming overloaded with loan-words from 
Goidelic and Brythonic when we first hear anything about 
it. So, failing to recognise this borrowing of words by 
the Picts, some have been led to regard Pictish as a kind of 

Druim Criaich, edited with a translation by Stokes in the " Revue Celtique," 
xvi. 148-50. The storyteller undertakes to explain the peculiarity of the 
succession : he first relates how the three sons of the Irish kinjf, Eochaid 
Feidlech. rebelled against their father, and how they fell in the conflict. He 
then adds words to the following effect :—" Then before nightfall their three 
heads came to Druim Criaich, and there Eochaid uttered the word, that from 
that time forward no son should ever take the lordship of Tara after his father 
unjess some one came between them," 



i6 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

Gaelic, and some as a dialect akin to Welsh. The point to 
have been decided, however, was not whether Gaelic or 
Welsh explains certain words said to have been in use 
among the Picts, but whether there does not remain 
a residue to which neither Gaelic nor Welsh, nor, indeed, 
any Aryan tongue whatsoever, can supply any sort of key. 
This is beginning of late to be perceived,^ and all the more 
clearly now that the ancient inscriptions found in the 
Pictland of the North have been more carefully studied.- 
The whole group of inscriptions, however, is a very small 
one, and it shows the manifold influence of Gaelic and 
Norse, especially in Shetland, for Pictish cannot have 
become extinct for some time after the earlier visits 
of the Norsemen to our coasts. Among those inscriptions 
and fragments of inscriptions, there are two or three which 
may be said to be fairly legible ; and one of them is 
punctuated word by word. Nevertheless the adherents 
to the view that Pictish is Celtic and Aryan have in 
vain been challenged to produce a convincing translation. 
Neither Gaelic nor Welsh seems to be of any material 
avail in the effort, and one may confidently surmise that 
any other Aryan language will be found of still less use, if 
possible. This being so, it is not too much to say that the 
theory of the non-Aryan origin of the Pictish language 
holds the field at present. 

Precarious as the Pictish inscriptions must be admitted 
to be, they have supplied the key to the interpretation of 
certain other inscriptions, to wit, in Wales, Cornwall, and 
Ireland. Thus a short one in minuscules at St. Vigeans, 
near Arbroath, reads, Drosteit ipc ttoret etf forms, which 

1 See the "Revue Celtique," vi. 398, 399, and Zimnier's article in the 
" Zeitschrift fiir Rechtsgeschichte," p. 217. 

- Lists of them will be found in Lord Southe^k's "Ogams at Brodie, 
Aquhollie, Golspie, and Newton" (Edinburgh, 1886), p. 38, and in the 
" Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland," vol. x.wi., 
pp. 267-304, to which may now be added vol. xxxii., pp. 324-98. 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 17 

may be for the present rendered " Drost's offspring/ Uoret, 
for Fergus." Similarly a well - known monument at 
Newton, in Aberdeenshire, bears in Ogam what may be 
provisionally read Vorj'enu ipnai Osir, which may, in the 
same way, be interpreted as " Vor's offspring Osir," that 
is to say, Osir son of Vor or Vaur, for the name is read 
Vaur in the script on the same stone. From these one 
learns how to construe the following, found at JLanfaglan 
near Carnarvon :- — 

FILI LOVERNII 
ANATEMORI. 

That meant, no doubt, " (the monument) of Lovernias's 
son, Anatemoras," that is, of Anatemoras son of Lovernias. 
This inscription was written in Latin, and Anatemori was 
the Celtic genitive of a proper name which in Brythonic 
would have been Anatiomaros, Welsh eneid-faivr, " great- 
souled," fxeya\6ij/vxo<;. From this cannot be severed the 
following, which is to be seen at Helston, in Cornwall : 
Cnegunii fill Genahis? Though meant to be Latin, it has 
to be construed according to the grammar of a different 
idiom, for fili is here treated as the crude stem of the 
word, so that filiGenai-2is \s to be regarded as doing duty 
ior Jilins and Genams in apposition, and with only one case 
termination. The whole means Genaius filius Cnegiuni, 
but the syntax is not that of an Aryan language. It is 
familiar, however, in agglutinative languages like Basque, 
and it occurs in our inscriptions too frequently to be 
regarded as a slip. Thus we have it both in Latin and in 
Goidelic on a tombstone found at Clydai, in Pembroke- 

' It will be seen later (p. 50) that a more probable rendering than "off- 
spring" would be "kin" or "nephew," and so probably with the vocable 
poi of certain Irish Ogams. 

- See Hiibner's " Inscriptiones Britannice Christiante," No. 147. 

^ Hiibner, No. 5. 
W.P. C 



i8 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

shire: the Latin reads ETTERNI FILI VICTOR,^ 
\v\\Q\-Q fill Victor is treated as one noun in the nominative, 
and enough of the Ogam remains to show that the con- 
struction in the Goidelic version was identical. The whole 
meant " yEternus's son Victor," that is, Victor son of 
yEternus. Another instance of the same agglutinative 
syntax occurs on a stone at Eglwys Cymun, in the south- 
west of Carmarthenshire : it reads in Latin,^' 

AVITORIA 
FILIA CVNIGNI, 

and in Goidelic Inigena Cunlgni Avittoriges, "(the monu- 
ment) of Avitoria, daughter of Cunignas." Here the 
nouns in apposition are inigena, "daughter," and Avit- 
toriga ; so the genitive ending es is applied to the latter 
alone, while the genitive of the father's name is inserted 
between the two feminines. From Ireland may be men- 
tioned an inscription at Dunloe, near Killarney, which 
runs thus : Maqiii Ttal niaqui Vorgos niaqiii niiicoi Toicac, 
" (the monument) of MacTail, son of Fergus, son," &c. In 
correct Goidelic this should have been Maqni Ttali niaqiii 
Vorgossos'^ niaqui, &c. ; but Ttal and maqni, Vorgos and 
maqni, being respectively in apposition, have only one 
mark of the genitive each. The same construction is 
shown in one of the northern Ogam inscriptions of Ireland : 
it stands at a spot some twelve miles north-east of 
Omagh, in Tyrone, and reads: Dotoatt maqni Nan . . .^ 
" (the monument) of Dotoatt, son of Nainnidh." Here 
Dotoatt-maqni must be construed as an agglutination with 

' Hiibner, No. no. 

- See the " Archreologia Cambrensis" for 1893, p. 285. 

■* It is not necessarily Vorgossos, as Vorgos may have represented a genitive 
which in a later form occurs as Foj-go or Fono. 

■• See the "Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquiriesof Irelainl " for 1895, 
p. 104. 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 19 

only one genitive termination, to wit, the i at the end of 
maqui, "son's, filUy 

The distribution of inscriptions with this non-Aryan 
syntax suggests that the British Isles were once inhabited 
by a people speaking a non-Aryan language, and that, 
while that people learned the vocabulary of an Aryan 
language, it continued the syntax of its previous speech. 
This was so decidedly the case, that we trace it not only 
in the Goidelic which that people definitely adopted, but 
also in the Latin which its learned men now and then 
wrote. There is nothing incredible in this, as habits of 
pronunciation and the syntax peculiar to a language are 
most persistent and difficult to eradicate, even when careful 
teaching is directed to that end, as anybody will admit 
who knows anything of the difficulties of teaching Welsh 
boys idiomatic English. One sees accordingly how the 
Goidelic of the west of Britain may have been profoundly 
modified by the pronunciation and syntax of the non- 
Aryan language of the Aborigines ; but to what extent 
the Brythonic conquerors of Mid-Wales may have cleared 
the latter area of its ancient inhabitants, whether mostly 
Goidelic or native, it is impossible to say. Beyond those 
conquests, however, the old inhabitants of the Venedotian 
north on the one hand, and those of the Siluro-Demetian 
south on the other, are not likely to have been displaced 
on any considerable scale. We are accordingly at liberty 
to regard the Ordovic territory of Mid-Wales as the most 
thoroughly Brythonic. It might appear at first sight a 
remarkable corroboration of this view, that Mid-Wales 
shows no inscriptions in Ogam at all or any inscriptions 
whatsoever in which Goidelic can be traced. But as to 
the absence of Goidelic traces in Mid-Wales, it must be at 
once explained, that this region has very few inscriptions 
at all to show corresponding to the post-Roman ones to be 
found more to the north and more to the south. That 

C 2 



20 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

very fact, however, is not without a significance of its own, 
for it seems to show that the burial customs of the ancient 
Brythons of Mid-Wales differed from those of the other 
peoples : add to this that Mid -Wales has few or no 
cromlechs to show. Possibly the inhabitants buried their 
dead in barrows, where there was less inducement to 
indulge in writing than in the case of peoples who put 
up stones as memorials of their departed. 

It may be objected that these arguments as to Mid- 
Wales are mostly negative, but there is at least one 
argument of a more positive kind — an argument based 
on the actual pronunciation of Powysian Welsh. In that 
dialect the vowel a, whether short or long, has a narrow 
pronunciation resembling that of the narrow a in the 
standard English pronunciation of such words as man and 
bad. This vowel may be indicated as a, and we have it in 
such words as cam, "crooked," mam, " mother," /rt//, "when," 
and car, "a cousin." Further, cam and car tend to become, 
and have, in fact, extensively become, kiqm and kiar, com- 
binations from which the analogy of other languages would 
lead us to expect eventually some such forms as tsham and 
tsJiqr, or even sham and sJuir, that is, provided this dialect 
of Welsh continued long enough a spoken language not 
too much restrained by the yoke of the standard spelling. 
The change here indicated is just what has happened in 
France : the Gauls appear to have pronounced their a 
narrow, and when they adopted Latin they could probably 
not help continuing their old pronunciation with its a. 
The result has been that French has made Latin words 
like nassHS, "nose," and pratum, "a meadow," into ncz and 
pre, and caput, " head," into c/icf, pronounced with ts/i as in 
its English form of c/iic/, and later, with c/i = English s/i 
as in standard French at the present day. The same was 
the case with such a word as Latin castra, " a camp," which 
some of the Gauls and the Brythons of this country seem 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 21 

to have pronounced kiqstra, which the ancestors of the 
EngHsh borrowed and made into ceaster, whence the 
modern Chester^ pronounced Tshester. The initiative in all 
these changes is the pronunciation of a as a, which is a 
sound with a tendency to become e ; and the most natural 
explanation of the fact that a and iq occur in Mid-Wales 
Welsh is, that some of the Brythons, like the other Celts of 
Northern Gaul, had a as the sound of a in their language 
when they penetrated to the west of this island. To the 
extent here indicated by the pronunciation, the Welsh of 
Povvys is more like that of ancient Gaulish, that is to say, 
it is more purely Brythonic, than any of the other dialects. 
The reason for this is, probably, that the language of the 
Ordovices had been modified by the gradual absorption of 
other nationalities into that tribe, as it extended its con- 
quests towards the west, while the Sons of Cuneda came 
from a district called Manau in the land of the Guotodin, 
Ptolemy's Otadini, or better Votadini. It was in or near 
their territory that the Roman wall reached the North Sea, 
and to them also belonged the coast northwards to the Forth, 
including what is now known as the Lothians, It is 
possible that the Votadini were not the first Brythons to 
occupy that strip of country ; and it is probable that the 
previous inhabitants were driven inland, either by them or 
by previous invaders of kindred nationality. In either case 
the Gaulish of the Votadini may have had the chance of 
remaining less influenced by the idioms of the country, 
than can have been the case with tribes whose assimilation 
of the peoples conquered by them in war proceeded on a 
larger scale and for a longer period of time. 

South of the domain of Powysian Welsh we have Breck- 
nockshire, giving a broad pronunciation to the vowel a, 
whether long or short. But in the Welsh of Monmouth- 
shire and Glamorganshire as far as the Neath Valley and the 
western limit, approximately, of the Custom of Glamorgan 



22 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

(p. 30), the short a alone is broad, long a being uniformly 
made narrow. This seems to indicate that at one time that 
part of the southern border of the Principality came under 
the influence of some Brythonic people pressing westwards, 
such, for anything known to the contrary, as the Dobunni 
near the mouth of the Severn may have been. 

It is, however, not to be supposed that Brythonic was 
formed in Wales : we are compelled by the close similarity 
of Welsh with Old Cornish and Breton to suppose that 
the language in alt its essential features was formed before 
the Ordovices reached the shores of Cardigan Bay ; and 
we have the means of gauging to some extent how far it 
has deviated from Gaulish. A certain number of sentences 
are extant in Gaulish, and they invariably observe the 
ordinary usage of Aryan syntax in not placing the verb 
before its subject : take for example the following — 

^€yofxapo<; OutAXoveo? tooutious 
Na//.avcraTi? eiwpov JiqXyja-aiXL aroaiv I'e/jirjTOV 

That is, " Segomaros son of Villonos, magistrate of Nimes, 
made for (the goddess) Belesama this temple." Or this, 
Rotin brivatioju Frofitu Tarbeiso)iios ieurn ; that is, " Pro- 
pugnaculum pontilium Fronto, Tarbeisoni filius, fecit." ^ It 
is unfortunate that not one of the Gaulish sentences extant 
happens to come from the ancient Belgium ; but there 
is no reason to suppose that the Gaulish of Belgic Gaul 
differed in its syntax from the Gaulish of other parts of 
the country. On the other hand, the normal syntax of 
the Neo-celtic languages requires the verb to precede its 
subject, and the question arises how this important dif- 
ference began. It might be suggested as an explanation, 
that the earlier Celts mixed with a non-Aryan race, whose 
language had this syntactic peculiarity of Neo-celtic as 
regards the position of the verb, and that they thus evolved 

' According to Stokes's " Celtic Declension " (Gottingen, 18S6), pp. 60, 67. 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 23 

the Goidelic language. The next stage might similarly be 
supposed to be a mixing of the Brythons with the Goidels 
of the description just suggested, when it became the 
turn of the latter to be conquered, the result being that 
Brythonic emerged, having indirectly acquired some of 
the linguistic peculiarities of the Aboriginal inhabitants of 
Gaul, of Britain, or of both. Whatever the real explana- 
tion may prove to be, it will, in all probability, have to 
take for granted a racial amalgamation on a considerable 
scale. But the linguistic conditions seem to us, it is need^ 
less to say, to postulate a pre- Celtic race whose language 
was characterized by the chief peculiarities distinguishing 
Neo-celtic from Gaulish.^ 

The foregoing remarks amount briefly to this : the 
Goidelic and the Aboriginal elements should be expected 
in their greatest strength in the south and in the north of 
Wales, while Mid-Wales is marked out by the Gaulish 
affinities of the Powys dialect, and by the absence of 
monuments betraying any traces of Goidelic influence, as 
the home of the Brythonic element in the west of the 
island. We are, however, unable to detect in the habits 
or physical characteristics of the people at the present 
day any salient features corresponding to these vanishing 
landmarks. Thus the Aboriginal non-Aryan ideas as to 
marriage might, conceivably, have survived long in the 
modified form of a tendency to take somewhat too lenient 
a view of immorality, but the statistics of illegitimacy in 
Wales do not represent its geographical distribution to be 
such as clearly to suggest any such permanence of influence. 
On the other hand, men of purely Aryan descent are 
supposed to have been, like the ancient Gauls and the 
ancient Germans, inclined to be of a light complexion and 
a tall stature, which would, perhaps, imply the requirement 

' We are glad to be able to i^efer our readers to an elaborate treatment of 
this question in Appendix B. 



24 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

of more food than in the case of men of smaller build. We 
have, however, no statistics to show whether the people of 
Mid-Wales are on the whole taller or blonder than other 
Welshmen, but the Land Commission have heard some 
evidence to the effect, that the former fare better in the 
matter of food, especially in the county of Montgomery. 

When and how the comparative homogeneity of the 
Welsh people was produced, it is impossible to say with 
any approach to precision. First of all, however, the 
distinctive customs of the Aborigines must have given 
way gradually to those of their Goidelic masters, though 
hardly without affecting the latter themselves ; and the 
native language yielded, no doubt, comparatively early to 
Goidelic. As to Goidelic itself, its turn to go came in due 
time. We have no evidence that it was spoken in any 
part of Wales in the eighth or ninth century ; but it was 
probably not dead till well into the seventh. Besides 
having a language of their own, however, the Goidels must 
have had also their own laws ; and these, it would seem, 
proved in some respects more tenacious than their language. 
Welsh literature speaks of one great and conspicuous legis- 
lator of this island in early times. He is called Dyfnwal 
Moel-Mitt, but the name Dyfmval, answering as it does 
exactly to the Irish Doin/inall, Anglicised Donald, teaches 
us nothing precise as to his race. On the other hand, the 
epithet Moci-nind, in its oldest form Moel Mut, cannot be 
other than Goidelic, and its historical form in Irish is Moel 
Miiaid, which we have in Ua Maol-nmaidJi, in English 
spelling O'Molloy. It should mean " the tonsured man or 
slave of Muad," in the same way that Mael-Patraic or 
Mulpatric was made into Calvus Patricii} In the vocable 

' See Rhys's "Goidelic Words in Brythonic " in the " Archaeologia 
Cambrensis" for 1895, pp. 299, 300 ; Nigra's " Reliquie Celtiche" (Turin, 
1870), p. 19; Stokes's " (loiilelica "' (London. 1S72), pp. 86, 91 ; and Rhys's 
" Cehic Britain," pp. 73-5. 



ETFiNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 25 

Muaid, for an earlier Moti, we have the genitive of the name, 
possibly of some forgotten divinity, and the formula is not 
Christian, but merely retained in use in Christian times. 
This personage, whose full name proves him to have been no 
thorough Brython, is the accredited legislator of the Cymry ; 
and, according to one of the manuscripts of the Venedotian 
version of the Laws of Howel, the former's laws continued 
in force to the time of Howel. But even Howel, descended 
as he was from Cuneda, and representing the Brythonic 
element as he did, thought it inexpedient to undo the 
whole of the work of the Goidel. He left undisturbed his 
reckoning of measurement from the barley-corn up to the 
acre and the mile, as he did also his divisions of the country 
into cantrevs and their subdivisions. The words are to 
the following effect : ^ " And he [Dyfnwal] was a man of 
authority and wisdom ; and he (first) made good laws in 
this country, which laws continued in force till the time of 
Howel the Good. Afterwards Howel enacted new laws 
and annulled those of Dyfnwal ; and (yet) Howel did not 
disturb the measurements of lands in this island, but [let 
them continue] as Dyfnwal left them ; for the latter was 
the best man at measuring." Without entering into the 
question how far the laws of the Goidels differed from 
those of the Brythons, and to what extent Howel really 
modified- the laws obtaining till then in any part of his 
kingdom, we cannot help suggesting that the statement we 
have quoted represents one of the last stages in the amal- 
gamation of the two Celtic races in the west of the island. 

' Compare Owen's " Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales," i. 184, 185, 
where the different manuscripts have been diligently wrought into a patch-work 
most difficult to unravel. For this, however, the editor was probably not so 
much to blame as the perverse policy obtaining at the Public Record Office in 
his time. 

- Possibly we have an instance in point in the law, said to have once 
obtained in Britain, that any animal transgressing should be forfeited to the 
person injured. See the article "Mug-Kime" in Cormac's Irish Glossary 
(Dublin, 1862, and [translated at] Calcutta, 1868). 



26 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

Something may be learned on the head of race amal- 
gamation from the probable history of the national name 
of the Welsh, to wit, Cyinro, " Welshman," plural, Cymry. 
This word Cyniro stands for an earlier Ciivibrox or Coin- 
brox, parallel to the Gaulish Allobrox, plural Allobroges^ a 
name applied by Gauls to certain Ligurians whose country 
they conquered ; and just as Allo-brox meant an alien or 
foreigner, Welsh afffro, " foreigner," so Coni-brox must 
have meant " one belonging to one's own country, a 
compatriot." The choice of this term as the national 
name suggests that it was applied to men who did not 
all belong to one and the same race, or speak the same 
language. As the word is to be traced in Ciinibra-laiid, 
Cumber-laud, its use must have extended to the Brythons 
of Strathclyde, which renders it probable that it had 
acquired some popularity before the end of the struggle 
between the kings of Gwyned and the Anglian princes of 
Northumbria in the earlier half of the seventh century. On 
the other hand, as the name seems to have been unknown 
not only in Brittany but also in Cornwall, it may be 
conjectured that it cannot have acquired anything like 
national significance for any length of time before the 
battle of Deorham in the year 577, when the West Saxons 
permanently severed the Celts west of the Severn from 
their kinsmen in the country consisting now of the counties 
of Gloucester, Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. Thus it is 
probable that the national significance of the term Cyviro 
may date from the sixth century, and that it is to be 
regarded as the exponent of the amalgamation of the 
Goidelic and Brythonic populations under the high 
pressure of attacks from without by the Saxons and 
the Angles. 

Thus far of the races which may be said to have consti- 
tuted the Welsh people ; but some mention may now be 
made of others that have entered into the composition later. 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 27 

Among the earliest may be supposed a certain admixture 
introduced by the legions of ancient Rome, chiefly at such 
places as IscaSilurum orCarleon on the Usk,and Segontium, 
the remains of which are partially visible at the Carnarvon 
of the present day. After the departure of the Romans 
there was probably nothing of any importance in the matter 
of foreign blood introduced till the visits of the Scandinavian 
rovers from the eighth to the twelfth century. They may 
have left small settlements here and there on the coast, as, 
for instance, at Angle, in Pembrokeshire, and in the neigh- 
bourhood of the Point of Ayre and other places in Flintshire. 
Their presence also at Fishguard and Solva (in Welsh 
SolfacJi) in Pembrokeshire, seems to be proved by those 
names, and perhaps the same remark might be made as to 
Harlech, in Merionethshire. But the Scandinavians must 
have lost their idioms and distinctiveness in the language 
and nationality of their Celtic neighbours. The next acces- 
sion of foreign elements came in the course of the Norman 
conquests ; but it is not easy to say to what extent the con- 
querors contributed in flesh and blood to Welsh nationality, 
or even to ascertain to what extent they were Normans, 
and not Bretons similar in race to the Welsh among whom 
they arrived. But the descendants, whether of Normans 
proper or of Bretons, became eventually absorbed in the 
body of the Welsh people and adopted the Welsh language, 
even in the Vale of Glamorgan, where the conquest by the 
Normans was probably the most systematic and thorough 
in Wales. 

Not quite so, however, with another race which the 
Normans are supposed to have established in the west : 
we allude to the Flemings, who deserve in this context to 
be mentioned at somewhat greater length. Even before 
the Norman conquest of England, Flemings seem to have 
been brought to this country, as, for instance, by Tostig in 
his contest with his brother Harold for the crown. William 



28 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

the Conqueror married Matilda, daughter of the Count of 
Flanders, and he appears to have had Flemings in his 
employ in England. His son, William Rufus, had Flemish 
mercenaries in his army in Normandy when he attacked 
his brother, and Stephen employed them in large numbers 
in England. In fact, there is reason to believe that in the 
time of the early Norman kings Flemings settled in con- 
siderable numbers in this country. They appear to have 
been unpopular with both Normans and Saxons, and it 
occurred to Henry I. to make use of them, first, as a check 
on the Scotch, and afterwards on the Welsh. He settled 
them first in waste lands on the Tweed, but later he is said 
to have transported them bag and baggage to the Hundred 
of Roose in Pembrokeshire.^ It is observed that Roose is 
remarkable for its comparative absence of Welsh place- 
names, and it may be concluded that the Flemings cleared 
it of what Welsh inhabitants there may have been there. 
The settlers made themselves masters of the rest of South 
Pembrokeshire, but as more Welsh names survive there, it 
is not probable that the new-comers made a clean sweep 
of the previous inhabitants. The question how far this 
Flemish settlement was really Flemish and not English is 
one of considerable difficulty. In case it was purely or 
mainly Flemish, one is tempted to ask, why the language 
of the district is now a dialect of English any more than 
that of Flanders, where Flemish shows no innate tendency 
to become English. To this it has been replied, that the 
Fleming of Pembrokeshire now speaks English for the 
same general reason that the Dane of Lincolnshire speaks 
English ; and it may be readily admitted that the influence 



' The principal contemporary authorities for this are Florence of Worcester, 
Orderic, Alfred of Beverley, William of Malmesbury, and Brompton ; the words 
of those authors and of others in point will be found brought together in a 
valuable paper contributed by Mr. Henry Owen, of Withybusli, to the " .Archa;o- 
logia Canibieiisis " for 1895 5 see, more jiarticularly, pp. 9S-100. 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 29 

of the Church and of the castles^ in the district, combined 
with an inveterate hatred of the neighbouring Welsh, must 
have amply made up for the isolation from the body of the 
English world. On the other hand, one^ of the greatest 
authorities on English dialects has examined the linguistic 
evidence and declared that it breaks down. At most, he 
thought, there could only have been a subordinate Flemish 
element, which soon lost all traces of its original and but 
slightly different dialect, while the principal element must 
have been Saxon, as in Gower and in the Irish baronies of 
Bargy and Forth, forming the south-east corner of Ireland. 
Settlements of a still more obscure history were made 
here and there on the rest of the coast from St. Govan's 
Head to the mouth of the Severn, but far the most impor- 
tant must have been the group which made most of the 
peninsula of Gtuyr or Gower into a non-Welsh district, 
now known as English Gower, and in Welsh as Broivyr, 
that is, Bro- Wyr " the march or country of Gower." ^ Gower 
and South Pembrokeshire, which are mutually visible and 

^ See Mr. Ivor James's "Welsh in the i6th and 17th Centuries" (Cardiff, 

1887), p. 31- 

- We allude to the late Mr. Alexander J. Ellis, in a paper to which we 
shall have occasion to refer again. It is "On the Delimitation of the English 
- and Welsh Languages," and published in the "Cymmrodor" for 1882, seep. 178. 
See also Mr. Edward Laws's evidence received at Pembroke by the Welsh 
Land Commission, Questions 28,994-29,032. Mr. Laws is practically of the 
same opinion as Mr. Ellis ; and Professor Rhys has recently submitted the 
linguistic evidence adduced in Mr. Henry Owen's paper, p. 106, to the 
greatest living authority on the history of English sounds, namely, Dr. Henry 
Sweet, and he finds no reason to qualify Mr. Ellis's account of the matter. 
On the other hand, Professor Joseph Wright, in the course of his editing 
his English Dialect Dictionary, considers that he has come across words which 
unmistakably point to the Belgic mother country of the Flemings : he instances 
the interjection ackaji, and blease, "a blister." 

^ For a summary of the evidence as to the Flemish origin, see the Rev. 
J. D. Davies's "West Gower," especially part i., chapter iv., entitled " The 
Colonization by the Flemings," pp. 95-115. See also an important article 
entitled " Anglia Transwalliana " in the "Saturday Review" for the 20th of 
May, 1876 : it is, unless we are greatly mistaken, from the pen of the late 
Mr. Freeman. 



30 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

enjoy the same dialect of English, may be supposed to 
have been at one time in close communication with one 
another by sea. The establishment of Flemings and 
Englishmen in Gower and the geographical position of 
their country would naturally suggest a distinct lordship, 
which we have as the Seigniory of Gower : it has been 
referred to more than once in the evidence taken by the 
Welsh Land Commission in Glamorganshire.^ A great 
part of the south of Glamorgan is called in Welsh Bro 
Moi'ganmug, "the march, margin, or country of Glamorgan," 
a term incorrectly rendered into English as " the Vale of 
Glamorgan." Here the district of Llantwit Major has been 
thought to show traces of Flemish settlements ; but the 
Vale is remarkable chiefly for being, as already suggested, 
one of the earliest Norman conquests in Wales. This fact 
is rendered conspicuous at the present day by two very 
different features of the country, the Norman architecture 
of its churches and the possession by its farmers of the 
tenant-right known as the Custom of Glamorgan, which 
excels any other customary tenure in Wales. 

Lastly, Wales, situated as it is between England and 
Ireland, has always received additions to its population 
from both countries. As to England, the number of 
Englishmen settling in Wales has perhaps at no time been 
equal to the number of Welshmen migrating to the large 
towns of England. Irishmen have probably at all times 
been coming over to Wales, especially to the nearest 
corner, namely, Pembrokeshire. Thus the Irish story of 
the Ueisi tells us how some of those people left the part 
of Ireland represented by the Baronies of the Decies in the 
county of Waterford, and gave to Dyfed, a line of kings 
represented in the time of Gildas by Vortiporius, from whom 
Elen, wife of Howel the Good in the loth century, was 

' Qu. 5,095, 6,189-6,404, 6,418-6,422, 23,359, 27,975, 27,980, 28,014, 
28,029, 28,037. 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 31 

descended. To come down to a later time, we read in the 
history of Pembrokeshire by George Owen, who lived in 
the reign of Elizabeth, that the Anglo-Flemish portion of 
his native county was so overrun by Irishmen, that in 
some parishes the clergyman was found to be the only 
inhabitant who was not Irish.^ This, it is true, was an 
exceptional time, as it was at the end of the war known 
as Tyrone's Rebellion, but many of the exiles must have 
settled in Pembrokeshire. In fact, Mr. Henry Owen, the 
learned editor of George Owen's work, remarks'- that the 
descendants of those Irishmen can still be traced. 

Reverting for a moment to the chief races constituting 
the Welsh people, the Celtic or Aryan consisting of Goidels 
and Brythons, and the non-Aryan consisting of the Abori- 
ginal population, we may say that their relative proportions 
to one another may be treated as little disturbed by 
immigrants from Ireland or even from England ; for the 
average Englishman is at most not much more Aryan than 
the average Welshman. But the Scandinavian settlements, 
so far as they went, must have gone to strengthen the Aryan 
element, and in a qualified sense the same may be said of 
the Norman conquests in Wales. Then as to the Anglo- 
Flemish districts, the settler cannot be regarded as having 
to any large extent helped to modify the composition of 
the Welsh people, as he has partly resisted the temptation 
to merge his national individuality in the amalgam of races 
around him. As it is, he is there conveniently situated 
for the purposes of comparison, and in this connection he 
may be roughly described, at any rate so far as Pembroke- 
shire is concerned, as somewhat better fed than his Welsh 
neighbour, more plump and well-conditioned in point of 
personal appearance, more happy and contented with his 

' See George Owen's " Pembrokeshire," p. 40. 

- In the vohime, to which reference has already been made, of the 
" Archccologia Cambrensis," p. 103. 



32 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

lot generally, and less troubled with social or political 
ideas as to the future. 

Should it then be asked what the Welsh of the present 
day are, Aryan or not Aryan, the answer must be, we think, 
that, on the whole, they are not Aryan ; that, in fact, the 
Aryan element forms, as it were, a mere sprinkling among 
them. This is by no means surprising, as will be seen on 
comparing the case of France, to which we have already 
alluded. For the French of the present day, with the 
exception of the Teutonic element in the north-east of 
France, are, in the main, neither Gauls nor Aryans of any 
description so much as the lineal representatives of the 
inhabitants whom the Aryans found there. In fact, the 
Gauls were not very numerous, even when they ruled the 
whole country. It has been estimated, on the basis of the 
particulars given by Caesar as to the numbers of the cavalry 
which the different Gaulish tribes were able to place in the 
field to meet the Roman legions, that the Gaulish aristo- 
cracy formed a surprisingly small proportion of a popula- 
tion whose numbers ranged somewhere between three and 
six millions.^ There seems to be no reason to suppose that 
the dominant Celts in this country were relatively more 
numerous than in Gaul. They formed a ruling class, and 
led their dependents in war, which was their business above 
all other things. 

Coming down to later times, we may say that their 
descendants retained the position of privilege and leading 
in the contests with the Normans, who either measured 

' See Roget de Belloguet's " Ethnogenie Gauloise," ii. 308-314, and 
Bertrand and Reinach's " Celtes dans les Vallees du Po et du Danube," 
ii. 41. See also M. d'Arbois de Jubainville's " Premiers Habitants de 
I'Europe,'" vol. ii., pp. 7-9, wliere the learned Frenchman estimates the 
aggregate of Gauls, inclusive of women and children, at 60,000, a figure which 
has always struck us as somehow too low. We find it now boldly challenged 
by Mr. W. H. (Bullock) Hall in liis " Romans on the Riviera " (London, 1898), 
PP- 3-5- 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 33 

swords with them on the field of battle, or entered into 
family alliances with them, as best suited their purposes 
for the time being. In any case, the Normans do not 
appear to have thought it beneath them to intermarry with 
the nobility of Wales, and that to an extent not to be, 
in the case of England, inferred from the history of their 
treatment of Saxon or Anglian families. As late as the 
Tudor period the able-bodied men of the Welsh families 
took part in raids on the Marches and in the interminable 
feuds which raged among them at home, in the course 
of which they waylaid one another or burnt each other's 
residences about their owners' ears. Witness, for instance, 
the state of Eifionyd, as represented by Sir John Wynne, 
in his History of the Gwydir Family. But from the 
moment that Wales was subjected to English law they 
began to find their occupation gone, and probably to 
dwindle in importance and power ; but it remained for 
the Civil War which broke out under Charles I. to com- 
plete their ruin, since they ranged themselves nearly all 
on the side of the King. Neither folly nor misfortune, 
however, could loosen the attachment felt for them by 
their dependents, an attachment which a perusal of the 
evidence taken by the Welsh Land Commission would 
show to be still strong among the tenants on the larger 
estates in Wales. There remained a difference of educa- 
tion, a difference of class, to mark off the squire and his 
family from the people on his land, but no conscious 
distinction of race. 

Nevertheless, if a competent ethnologist were to be sent 
round Wales to identify the individual men and women 
who seemed to him to approach what he should consider 
the Aryan type, his report would probably go to show 
that he found comparatively few such people, and that 
those few belonged chiefly to the old families of the land- 
owning class : the vast majority he could only label as 

W.P. D 



34 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, i.) 

probably not Celtic, not Aryan. To pronounce, from the 
point of view of race and history, on the social, political, or 
religious proclivities of that majority is rendered difficult by 
the fact that it is not eas\' to estimate correctly the influence 
on Wales of movements originated or developed in England. 
There is, however, one instructive instance : the Welsh 
people have largely deserted the Established Church, and 
they have done so in favour of more democratic forms of 
religion, just as their kinsmen have done in Cornwall and 
the Highlands of Scotland. Herein the Welsh can hardly 
be said to have been merely following the example of 
England, as England cannot be considered to have given 
a decisive lead in the matter. Religion, however, is not 
the only domain in which the tendency of the Welsh is 
democratic : it holds good of their attitude, on the whole, 
as regards social and political questions. And this cannot 
tail to be rendered more and more conspicuous by all 
movements calculated to weaken the attachment of the 
many for the class which supplied them with leaders in 
the past. 

It may perhaps be convenient if we summarise here 
the views set forth in this chapter, somewhat as follows : — 

The study of the skulls and other remains found in 
early interments in this country proves that it was inhabited 
by more than one race at the time when the Romans came 
here to conquer. 

The study of language and institutions suggests the 
view, that the earliest inhabitants were of a non- Aryan race, 
namely, that represented probably by the Picts of history. 

In the fifth or the sixth century before our era, or 
perhaps earlier, the first Celtic settlers came and overran 
most of the southern half of Britain. They were the 
Aryan ancestors of the Goidels, whose language is now 
represented by the Gaelic dialects of Ireland, Man, and 
Scotland, 



ETHNOLOGY OF ANCIENT WALES. 35 

In the second or the third century B.C. there arrived 
invaders belonging to the other branch of the Celtic 
family, namely, the Brythons, and they conquered from 
the Goidels most of the country which the latter had 
conquered previously from the Aborigines. 

In what is now Wales the Brythonic conquests were 
represented by the territory of the Ordovices, covering 
the whole of Mid- Wales as far as Cardigan Bay. 

The Goidels to the north and south of the Ordovices 
were never systematically displaced, and their Goidelic 
may have continued a living tongue down into the seventh 
century. 

Soon after the Romans left Britain the Ordovices 
received an accession of Brythonic blood in the troops 
led by Cuneda and his Sons, to whom may be traced the 
political framework of Wales under the aspect which it 
presents to the historian of the Norman Conquest. 

Conquests there must have been, but the study of the 
languages in point goes to prove more, namely, inter- 
mixture : the Brythons mixed with the Goidels, who were 
themselves an amalgam of the first Celtic settlers with 
the Aborigines ; but all conscious distinction of race had 
probably been obliterated before the eleventh century. 

The admixture of other blood, Scandinavian, Norman, 
Flemish, and English, has not greatly modified the race, 
the predominant element in which has probably always 
been the substratum contributed by the earliest lords of 
the soil of these islands.^ 

• Since this chapter was written we have had occasion to read a remarkable 
book by the late Rev. W. D. Babington on "Fallacies of Race Theories as 
applied to National Characteristics" (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1895). 
Among other things we may say that it confirms our view as to the mixture of 
races constituting each of the nations in the United Kingdom, and it disposes 
of the stock generalisations framed to flatter the German at the expense of 
the Celt. 



D 2 



CHAPTER II. 

THE PICTLSH QUESTION. 

The foregoing outlines will serve to suggest a picture of 
the ethnology of ancient Wales, and we have endeavoured 
not to crowd it with details. Some of these we now pro- 
ceed to supply by elaborating a few of the points on which 
we have touched in passing. We begin by reverting to 
the Pictish succession and metronymic designations like 
that of Gwydion son of Don ; and when one comes to 
consider what the Pictish succession must have originally 
meant, one cannot overlook Caesar's statement, that some 
of the inhabitants of Britain had their wives in common. 
Professor Zimmer, on analysing Caesar's chapter in point, 
corres to the conclusion that the words were meant to 
apply to non-Aryan inhabitants of the interior — those, in 
fact, whom Caesar represents as regarding themselves 
descended from the Aboriginal islanders in contrast to the 
later comers, who, according to the same authority, did not 
materially differ in their customs from the Gauls. Caesar's 
words (v, 14) are to the following effect: — Uxores habent 
dent duodeniqiie inter se commimes, et viaxmie fratres aim 
fratribus parentesque cum Hberis ; sed qui siait ex iis nati, 
eortim habentii?' Uteri, quo frif>iii7n rij-go qvcrqne didncki est. 
The first sentence makes a clean sweep of the institution of 
marriage, and leaves no room for the idea of incest ; ^ but the 

' As to the origin of that idea see M. S. Keinath's article "'La prohibition 
dc- I'inceste et ses origines" in " L' Anthropologic," voh x.,pp. 59-70. 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 

second sentence seems to us to have been dictated by ti 
Roman's inability to realise a state of society exclusively 
based on birth. The idea of assigning the children each to 
its own father, if not entirely due to the working of Caesar's 
own mind, reads in this context like an advance towards 
Aryan habits. At any rate, we shall as we proceed find 
traces of a stage of society betraying no perceptible 
tendency in that direction.^ 

The kind of social arrangement here in question suggests 
several curious points for consideration, and foremost among 
them this : who would be reckoned a man's nearest of kin .'' 
Clearly one's own brothers and sisters by the same mother ; 
and looking backwards one's nearest relatives would be his 
mother and his mother's brothers and sisters similarly, while 
looking forwards it would be one's sisters' children. So one 
would naturally look for one's heir and successor in one's 
brother, and after him in a son of one's sister. This is 
the key to a good deal that is otherwise unintelligible 
in Celtic literature : let us take for instance the Mabinogi 
of Math, which has already been mentioned. There the 
leading family ruling over Gwyned consists of the following 
persons : — 

Math the king, who is called son of Mathonwy, about 
whom nothing is known. 

Don, Math's sister, about whom equally little is known, 
except that she had the following children : 

Gwydion, Gofannon, {Amaethon), Gilfaethzvy, and Efeyd, 
all called sons of Don ; and one daughter called 

Aranrot, or Arianrhod, daughter of Don. Arianrhod had 
two sons, Dylan and Leiv Lazvgyffes. 

Next to the king himself, Gwydion plays the most 
important 7'uLe in Math's realm, and the king teaches him the 

' Such a stage of society, together with well-known stories about virgin 
mothers, points back to a savage state in which the male element had never 
been supposed necessary to conception. 



THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

.agic of which he was master : in fact, everything points 
to Gwydion as Math's successor, tliough that is not stated 
in the story. In due time ILew ILawgyffes is represented 
succeeding to the kingdom of Gwyned. In other words, 
Math is succeeded by his sister's son, Gwydion, and 
Gwydion is succeeded by his sister's son, ILew. It is 
tacitl)' assumed that Gwydion was the father of JLew ; but 
the relationship between Gwydion and Arianrhod is never 
discussed, and the silence maintained on that point only 
becomes intelligible in the light of the social arrangement 
here supposed. 

Similarly in the case of the Mabinogi of Bnnnven : there 
we have Bendigeitvran, or Bran the Blessed, as king of 
Britain, and he has a brother, Manawydan, and a sister, 
Branwen : they are called sons of ILyr and daughter of 
ILyr respectively, while their mother is named Penardim,- 
daughter of Beli, son of Mynogan. 

Now Branwen is given to wife to Matholwch, who reigns 
in Ireland, and there she has a son by him called Gwern 
son of Matholwch ; but after some years have passed Bran 
hears of his sister being iiarshly treated, and he makes an 
expedition to Ireland. He leaves behind him Cradawc, 
or Caradog, his son, to take charge of this country, the 
kingship of which is, however, seized in the meantime, by 
Caswattawn, or Caswaiton, son of Beli. For this Caswafton, 

• She had two other sons, Nissien find Efnissien, -whose father is called 
Euroswytt in the Mabinogi : he is said in one of the Triads (i. 50 = ii. 49) 
to have, some time or other, taken Lyr prisoner. The form PenanUvi in 
the Mabinogi was an archaism ; and our narrator, had he understood it, would 
have put it into his own spelling as Pciiarthi, which would be in modern 
Welsh Pinaritii ov f^cji-afitii, meaning " Her of the Black Head." Compare the 
variant Dyf-lyn for Dn-lyn " I51ack pool," and Welsh u in verbal nouns like 
credu "act of believing '" ■xwA ^oliehii " act of corresponding, " as compared with 
Old Irish cretem "belief," j(r//w/"act of following," and sessoiii "standing." 
The subject is too large to dispose of here in passing, but the reader should 
consult the learned articles of M. Ernault on " Les Formes de I'lnfinitif 
Breton," in Meyer and Stern's '" Zeil. fiir Celt. Philologie," vol. ij. 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 39 

we are told, donned a coat of magic mail and slew Cara- 
dog's men without disclosing who it was that did it ; but he 
did not slay Caradog, as he was his relative. He is called 
his nephew, son of his cousin ; and we learn from an 
ancient triad cited in the story that he died of grief and 
vexation at the slaughter of his men. In Ireland the 
coming of Bran and his host created a great commotion, 
but, thanks to the intercession of Branwen, the two kings 
Bran and Matholwch came to terms, and the concession 
made by the Irish was to give Matholwch' s kingdom to 
Branwen's son Gwern. The concession consisted in the 
fact implied that Gwern could not, according to the usage 
of Matholwch's people, be Matholwch's successor, as he 
would, according to the birth succession, be no recognised 
relation of Matholwch's at all, whereas, according to the 
same rule, he would be Bran's nearest of kin and his rightful 
successor, as son of his sister. The editor or narrator of 
the story as we have it does not show that he understood 
this, and it is he probably that is to be held responsible 
for an inconsistency which occurs in it. More than once 
he makes Caswatton son of Beli cousin to Bran and 
Manawydan, though he treats them at the outset as sons of 
Penardim, and her as daughter of Beli.^ It all comes right, 
however, if we treat Penardim, not as daughter of Beli, but 
as his sister on the mother's side : then Bran's right to 
succeed Beli, who is fabled to have been king of Britain, 
becomes clear — he is the son of Beli's sister. But an editor 

1 We take it that the latest editor is responsible for this, but that he found 
Caswaiion made son of Beli in the version which he was using of the Mabinogi, 
and that he forgot or hesitated to alter the relationship as indicated at pp. 41 
and 44. The passage where Penardim is made daughter of Beli is the opening 
of the Mabinogi of Branwen (p. 26), and the second line of it is remarkable for 
the words arderchabc got on hmdein, which have been translated from some 
such a phrase as insigniiits diadeviate, common enough, for example, in 
Geoffrey's Latinity, as in Lib. ij. i, 20, iv. 11, vi. 4. In fact we suspect that 
the Mabinogion had not assumed the form in which we have them till Geofirey's 
time. 



40 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

not familiar with this kind of succession would naturally 
think that he improved Bran's position by making his 
mother daughter of Beli — that is to say, by making Bran 
a descendant of Beli. 

The story originally implied the Pictish succession, and 
it is worthy of note that of the two men whom it represents 
succeeding their respective fathers contrary to it, the one, 
Caradog, dies of vexation,^ while the other, Caswatton, is 
only enabled to secure b\' violence and magic a position 
which the tenor of the Mabinogi assumes to have rightfully 
belonged to Manawydan after the death of his brother 
Bran. In fact, the introduction of Caradog and Caswatton 
betrays the falsifying hand of a historian, for Cradaiuc, 
as we have assumed, is merely a form of Caradawc, the 
representative of Caratdcos, in Latin Caratacus — sometimes 
distorted still into Caractacus — the name of the famous 
but unsuccessful leader of the Silures and Ordovices against 
the Romans. As a matter of fact, he was no son of Bran, 
nor was he of his Goidelic race, as he was a Brython. Yet this 
fiction has been widely accepted in Modern Welsh literature, 
according to which Caradog and Bran his father, together 
with their families, were taken captives to Rome, where 
Bran and others of his family were converted to Christianity, 
and on their return brought the Gospel to Britain. Then 
as to Caswatton, by him we are doubtless to understand 

1 The exact meaning of the word used is merely inferred, as it occurs only in 
this triad The part relating to Caradog reads in the Red Book (Oxford 
Mabinogion, p. 41), ^ kOnnG uii y trydyd dyn a torres y gallon o ntuygd, 
where the two last words should probably be o amiiuyqet. It seems to mean 
"And that was one of the three who broke tlieir hearts of vexation or grief."' 
Another of the three making U]) the original triad was Ffaraon, who is thus 
mentioned in "Ludd and Levelys,'' //vV., p. 98: Trydyd iryn'uvissat tin /if) 11 tif) 
a torres y gallon \o\ aiiiiiuii^fd, "That was tlie third chief guardian wlio broke 
his heart of grief." It is tliere said that Dinas E/mris in Snowdon had been 
previously known from Ffaraon as Dinas Ffaraon Dane, and the name carries 
us back to an old world of legend now submerged. The third limb of the 
triad, wc are sorry to say, has never bjen discovered. 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 41 

Cassivellaunos, the leader of the Brythonic tribes who had 
opposed Julius Csesar in the south-east of Britain when that 
general paid his second visit to our shores : Geoffrey, at 
the end of his third book, chap, xx., introduces him as 
Cassibell annus, son of Hely [r^rt</ Bely]. The way in 
which Caradog's history is referred to an ancient triad, 
suggests that we have in the allusion to his death a touch 
of genuine tradition, based remotely on the real history 
of Caratacos, and preserved in the west of the island. 

Lastly, as to Beli son of Mynogan,^ his identity with 
Bellinus son of Minocannus in Nennius's Historia Brit- 
tonum, where he is made the native leader against Julius 
Caesar, has been known for some time. And Professor 
Zimmer^ has traced the Nennian Bellinus, filius Mino- 
canni, back through Orosius's gibberish Minocynobel- 
linum Britannoi'uni regis filium to Suetonius's Adminio, 
Cynobellini Bi'ittannoruni regis fiiio ; and from the latter 
historian we learn that Adminios was a fugitive from Britain, 
who gave himself up to the mad emperor Caligula. So 
much for the designation of Beli, or Beli Mawr, son of 
Mynogan ; but we cannot follow Professor Zimmer in 
thinking that his unravelling of this tangle of errors dis- 
poses of Beli. For we conjecture that the words trans- 
lated " Son of Mynogan " were not to be found in the 
original of the Mabinogi, but that they were introduced 
by an editor who was acquainted with the Historia Brit- 
tonum of Nennius. What stood in the story previously 
was rather Beli Maur map A un, An, or A nau, " Beli 
the Great, son of A.," which occurs as Beli Ma6r in. Anna, 
" Beli the Great, son of Anna," in one of the pedigrees in 

' See Skene's "Four Anc. Books of Wales," ii. 204, 420 ; and San Marte's 
" Nennius und Gildas," pp. 40, 41, § 19. 

- See Zimmer's "Nennius Vindicalus," pp. 271-3 : his references are to 
Suetonius's Caligula, cap. 44 ef seq., and Orosius's " Histor. ad vers. Paganos," 
vii. 5, 5 ; see also Evans's "Coins of the Ancient Britons," pp. 208, 284-348 ; 
and Rhys's " Celtic Britain " (2nd ecHtion), p. 278. 



42 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ir.) 

Jesus College Manuscript 20, supposed to be of the thirteenth 
centur)'. Further one reads two sentences respecting 
Anna, as follows : yr anna honn oed verch y anihera6dyr 
rufein. yr anna Jionno a dywedei wyr yr eifft y bot yn 
gyfynnithder6 y veir vor6yn} which seem to represent two 
glosses from two different sources, as will be seen from the 
rendering of them, " This Anna was daughter to the 
emperor of Rome. That Anna used to be said by the men 
of Egypt to be cousin to the Virgin Mary." The latter 
statement is also made in the pedigree of Owen son of 
Howel the Good, who is traced back to Aballac son of 
Anialech qui f nit Belt niagni filins, et Anna niatcr ejus, qiiam 
diciint esse consobrinam Maria Virginis, Matris Domini 
nostri Ihesii CJiristir 

The treatment of the lL.yr pedigree in the matter of 
Penardim prepares us to understand the treatment of Anna 
in the pedigrees in question. The editor probably found 
Anna represented as Beli's wife or as his mother, but not 
feeling bound to say anything about her, he simply added 
to the name of Beli words meaning "Son of Mynogan," after 
the example of Nennius. With regard to the Christian 
Anna, the introduction of her name is due probably to an 
early confusion of it with that of Ana or Ami, genitive 
Anann, who figures in Irish mythology as mater deoriim 
Jiibernensium? This name would be treated in Old Welsh 
as Ann or An (possibly A nan), according to the quantity 

' See " Y Cymmiodor," viij. 84; also p. 85. 

- For the abliieviations used see Pliillimore's edition of MS. A. of the 
" Annales Cambrise," in " Y Cj'mmrodor," ix. 170: the genealogies seem to 
have been compiled in the tenth century. Whether tiie scribe here meant one 
to regard Anna as the mother of Beli or of Amalech is not clear ; but a little 
later (p. 174) he uncoul)tedly takes the latter view — the wrong view, in fact ; 
for he there has "Amalech son of Beii et Antut.'''' 

•"* See Stokes's edition of O'Donovan's translation of " Coi mac's Glossary " 
(Calcutta, 1868), s.v Ana, \i. 4 ; also p. 17, where an article is devoted to 
another female figure, Buavai n, mother of Irish heroes, just as Ana Mas 
mother of Irish gods. 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 43 

of the initial vowel in the Goidelic Ana or Anu, which is 
not certain. 

To return to Beli, we read in the Red Book story called 
Maxen's Dream,^ that he was in possession of Britain until 
Maxen and his legions came and drove him and his sons 
on sea ; and so closely does Beli appear associated with the 
sea that an ancient verse calls the brine of the ocean Beli's 
liquor.- This we cannot help regarding as a popular touch 
not to be explained by any amount of learned bungling on 
the part of Orosius or Nennius. We are led back to a 
legend in the west of Britain, which represented it enjoying 
a sort of a golden age which was only brought to an end by 
the advent of the Romans. We learn that the king's name 
was Beli, and we infer that he was a Goidel who had ships 
on the Irish Sea. We know from the Chronicles that the 
name which was Beli in Welsh (borne by one of the kings 
of Gwyned and by others in historical times) was in Irish 
Bt'/e ; further, there was an ancient Bile with whom we 
should identify our Beli the Great, and Irish legend 
represents him as the father of Mil, the leader of the last 
legendary conquest of Ireland and ancestor of all those of 
the Irish who called themselves Milesians after his name. 
The story as we have it makes Bile king of Spain, and by 
giving his son the name of Mil, genitive Miled, it brings us 
to the Latin miles, genitive inilitis, " a soldier " : this seems 
to have been a synonym or translation of another name, 
Galani or Golain, hy which Mil was known and described in 
Irish as a man of bravery and valour. The identity of the 
names Bile and Beli is, however, not all : the parallel is 
closer than it looks at first sight. Mil, son and successor of 
Bile, conquers Ireland, which is divided between his two 



• See the Oxford Mah., p. 88. 

- See the Book of Taliessin in Skene's " Four Ancient Books of Wales," 
ii. 150, where one reads Gnabt rbyf yn heli Beli wiradt, " Famihar is the sight of 
oars in the brine of Beli's liquor." For the mistranslation see i. 300. 



44 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

sons Eber and xA.irem, while the Mabinogi makes BeH's 
heir and successor, Bran, obtain the practical disposal of 
Ireland. The narratives otherwise differ, owing chiefly to 
the Welsh one having gone off into a story which may be 
regarded as forming a counterpart of that of the Nibelungen 
Slaughter in the literature of Teutonic lands. 

The tradition about Beli must be regarded as belonging 
to the Goidels of Britain, and it was only by a tof/r de force 
that Caswatton, the leader of Brythons — that is to say, of 
the hereditary foes of the Goidel — could be made son of 
Beli ; but it was natural enough that an editor of the 
Mabinogion should wish to graft the later history of his 
country on the legendary glories of the past, and it 
was a step in that direction to place Caswatton among 
-the sons of Beli. Whether he set himself to do this, or 
merely followed the e.xample set by a previous writer,^ 
his readers, accepting the words which he has used, 
could not help saying in effect : Yes, it was by craft and 
violence that Caswatton secured supreme power ; but he 
was after all son of the rightful king of Britain in her 
golden age — that is, of Beli the Great. The same editor is 
possibly also to be held responsible for the order of the 
events, which is probably unhistorical, as we should rather 
regard the aggressiveness of Casvvatton's race as one at least 
of the reasons for Bran's going to Ireland. But the dating 
of Caswatton's conquests in Wales after Bran's departure 
for Ireland is to be explained by the confounding of the 
naming of Cadwatton Lawhir with CaswaH-on's ; for Welsh 
tradition insists on that Cadwatton, who was grand.son of 
Cuneda and father of Maelgwn, as the final vanquisher of the 

' Such as Geoffrey or the writer of the pedigree already mentioned (p. 42), 
in which we have the descent of Owen son of Ilowel traced back not only to 
Maelgwn and Cuneda, but to Beli. The former portion seems to reach back 
to Tacit only : then comes a very Fictish looking portion beginning with Cein, 
son of Guoirein, son of Doli, son of Giiordoli, and terminating with Beli and 
Anna. See also the " Proceedings of the Antiq. of .Scotland," xxxij. 342. 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 45 

Goidels in North Wales.^ We may therefore still suppose 
that the Brythonic tribe of the Ordovices pushing on to 
the shores of Cardigan Bay may have been the cause of 
an emigration of Goidels to the nearest coast of Ireland. 
In fact, we have possibly a trace of this in the name 
Eblanii, which Ptolemy gives to the inhabitants of the 
coast north and south of the mouth of the Lififey, as 
we seem to have closely related names in that of the 
river Ela7i (a tributary of the Wye), and that of the 
mountain region of Elenid, in v.'hich Giraldus- places 
the sources of the Severn and the Wye, of the Towy, the 
Teifi, and the Ystwyth. On the Irish side it is significant 
that the story of Mil's two sons gives to Eber, the elder 
brother and eponymous hero of the Iverni, the southern half 
of Ireland, and to the younger brother, Airem (genitive 
Aireinan or Erejnon), the northern half; and that it further 
represents Airem slaying Eber and taking the whole of 
Ireland to himself The name Airem means ploughman, 
and possibly conveys a reference to the triumphs of the 
Aryan farmer over the ruder native. But even disregard- 
ing all such connotation of the name, we still have the fact 
that it has gathered round it legends reminding one of the 
story of Arthur ; and that the name Airem was borne by one 
of the early kings of Tara, in Meath and the land of the 
ancient Eblanii, the centre of Milesian rule over Ireland. 
Let us now see in what way the custom of reckoning 

1 See Triad i. 49 = ii. 40 = iii. 27 and the " lolo MSS.," pp. 78, 468. 
Compare Nennius, § 62, and note the confusion of names in the " lolo iVISS." 
See also the Oxford Bruts, where Kat6atta6n La6ir at p. 200, stands possibly 
for the same man as Kas6alla6n at p. 232 : in Geoffrey's Latin they are 
respectively Caduallo ix. 12, and Cassibellanus xi. 2. 

^ See his " Descriptio Kambiije" (Rolls Office edition^, pp. 119, 138, 
I70~3) I75> where the spelhng is Ele7ivyih and Elfimiih ; also the Oxford 
Mabinogion, p. 62, where it is written Elenit : Lewis Glyn Cothi wrote 
Elenid, IIL iv. 43, 4 (p. 184). As to the phonology of the equation suggested 
in the text, we have the similar reduction of tbl into el in the Welsh adverb 
leni (this year) from some form of the Wejth word blyned, "year.' 



46 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

descent by birth alone has left its impress on the language 
and monuments of those among whom it prevailed. Our 
attention is challenged in the first instance by inscriptions 
which suggest no father's name ; and the earliest of that 
class is probably the bronze tablet found not very long ago 
at Colchester and read as follows :^ — 

DEO . MARTI . MEDOCIO . CAMP 
ES[tr]IVM . ET VICTORIE ALEXAN 
DRI . PI I FELICIS AVGVSTI . NOS[tr]I 
DONVM . LOSSIO . VEDA . DE . SVO 
POSVIT . NEPOS . VEPOGENI . CALEDO. 

" To the god Mars Medocius of the Catnpes\t)-\es and to 
the victor}' of our Alexander Pius Felix Augustus (this) gift 
has been dedicated at his own expense by Lossio Veda, 
Vepogenos's nephew, a Caledonian." 

The god Medocius who is here equated with the 
Roman Mars is otherwise unknown, as is also the pre- 
cise meaning in this instance of the Latin Cainpestres, 
which usually has reference to the open field, and in 
particular to the Campus Martius in Rome : this has called 
forth the suggestion that perhaps Lossio Veda was a 
gladiator. However that may be, he has taken care to 
tell us that he was a Caledonian, which is for our purpose 
much the same as if he had called himself a Pict. We have 
indirect evidence to the same effect in the vocables Ve .a 
and Vepogeiii, for both may be said to occur in the list of 
the Pictish kings. The former has there been read Uecla, 
a spelling due doubtless to the difficulty of distinguishing 

' .See the " Proceedings " of tlie Society of Antiquaries, 2nd .S. xiv. lo8, 183 ; 
also " The Archreologia, " liv. 37. By reading Campesiuin one seemed to arrive 
at a native name Cawpeses, recalling Campsic- in Stirlini^shire, and the l^inn of 
Campsie on the Tay. As we have, however, to treat NOSI as nostri, we seem 
to be bound to insert /?- in CAMPESIVM likewise. For some lurther account 
of the bronze, tnj^ether with a photograph of it, see the " Pro. of the Antitj. of 
Scutlanil,'' .Wvi]. 325-30. 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 47 

in some kinds of handwriting between d and c/ ; and the 
latter has in the same document yielded a nominative 
Vipoig. The two entries occur also significantly near one 
another, as follows : ^ — 

Vipoig namet xxx. ann. regriaiiit. 
Camitulachama iiii. ami. regnauit 
Wradech iiecla ii. ann. regnauit. 

Lossio Veda, though showing no inclination to be over brief 
in describing himself, suggests no father's name ; and this is 
the case with certain other inscriptions, such as the one 
found on Winsford Hill, in Somerset, which reads- merely — 

CAR AT AC I 

NEPVS. 

But what did nepos (or 7iepus) mean ? For the Romans the 
word is known to have meant a grandson, a descendant, 
also a nephew, whether son of one's brother or of one's 
sister ; but in a society with birth alone considered, only 
one of those meanings is admissible — namely, a sister's son. 
Thus Carataci Nepii-s v^o\x\d mean "Nephew ( = sister's son) 
of Caratacas." Where the language used is Goidelic, the 
place of nepos is supplied by avias, genitive avi, reduced in 
Modern Irish to ua or 6, genitive ui, as for instance in the 
Jfollowing inscription from the Barony of Bere, co. Cork : 
Maqui Decceddas avi Toranias " (The Stone) of Mac-Dechet 
6 Torna." Or take the following, found at Dunbell, co. 
Kilkenny: Navvallo avvi Genittac\ci']^ " (The Stone) o{ Nuall 

' See Skene's "Chronicles of the Picts and Scots," p. 6 ; also the fac-simile of 
the MS. Skene's account of the manuscript will be found in his preface, 
pp. xviii. — xxiii., according to which it is a copy made in tlie fourteenth century 
from one or more manuscripts of the tenth. 

^ See the " Archseologia Cambrensis " for 1891, p. 30 ; also the " Academy " 
for Feb. 14, 1891, p. 168. 

^ "Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland" for 1896, 



48 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

6 GenticJir In one remarkable instance the word used is 
the etymological counterpart of the Latin Jiepos, genitive 
nepotis, in Irish Ogam niotta\s\ later nioth, ninth with a 
nominative )iie or nia, Welsh 7tei, now nai, "a nephew."^ 
The stone was found near Gortatlea, between Killarney 
and Tralee, and it reads thus, in two lines :- — 

Dutneli niaqui Glasiconas 
Niotta Cohrayio}\i\ 

" (The Stone) of Dumel, son of Glasiuc, nephew of (the) 
Distributor." We take Cobranor... to stand for cojH-rannori, 
genitive of co^nrannorias, and to mean one who shares or 
divides, probably in the sense of carving and dividing meat 
at feasts and banquets. Among the Irish this was a position 
of distinction, claimed by the warrior who had performed 
most feats of valour. There is a well-known Irish tale 
entitled the Story of Mac Datho's Pig, which turns on a 
contest for the carving of that portentous beast by the 
braves of Ulster and Connaught. Mac Datho was king of 
the Leinstermen, but afraid of both Ulster and Connaught, 
on account of a remarkable hound of his which they coveted. 
Fearing trouble, he took his wife's advice and cunningly 
invited both the men of Connaught and the men of 
Ulster for the same day : then they would, he said, get 
the hound. 

> The / which appears in the Latin nepos disappears, according to rule, in the 
Celtic equivalent ; hence Irish nie, genitive nioth. The Welsh setting out 
from ne(p)ot-s made it into 9ie-o or tie-io, whence ««' and nai : compare ffa'dr 
" thief." from /afn'o, for the Latin /niro. Other instances will be found in the 
" Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,' xxvi., 309. Breton 
has Ml and ti/z " nephew,' and fu'zez "niece,"' where the z of fii'z probably 
stands for the earlier s = /s of the nominative )ie(p)ot-s. Compare Breton 
■noz = Welsh fios "night," from tiot-s = noct-s, reduced in Latin to 7iox. 

' See the "Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaiies of Ireland " for 1895, 
pp. 1-4 ; h\\\ our reading is checked by a rubbing and a sketch kindly 
supplied by the Rev. P. Sweeny, A.M., Ballinacouity Rectory, Annascaul, 
and by a recent examination of the stone by Professor Rhys. 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 49 

They came, and were filled with surprise at meeting one 
another so unexpectedl\\ Presently they prepared to sit 
down to feast on the host's great swine, and then arose the 
question who was to carve : it was agreed to give it to the 
bravest. So each warrior who had confidence in his record 
declared what that was, whereupon rose another and put 
him down by enumerating greater feats of his own. This 
went on for some time, when at length it looked as though 
the honour of carving would fall for certain to Cet rfiac 
Matach, a Connaught hero, and he had taken up the knife 
to begin the carving when a belated Ultonian, Conall 
Cernach, hurries into the room and asks, O'a rannas duib ? 
" Who is carving for you .'' " It was replied that Cet 
was going to do it, and a contest of words takes place 
between Cet and Conall, with the result that Cet reluc- 
tantly yields, with the remark that Conall would not 
carve had Cet's brother Anluan been present. " But he 
is present," said Conall, who, after feeling in his girdle, 
brought forth the bleeding head of Anluan and hurled 
it in his brother's face. Such was Conall's excuse for 
arriving late, and the passage is one of the most graphic 
and savage in the whole range of old Irish literature. 

We have taken Niotta Cobranari to mean Nepotis 
Partistcg, as describing either Diinieli or Glasiconas, but it 
is possible that it should rather be taken as an independent 
proper name : at any rate, such names occur. Take, for 
example, such a later instance as Nioth-FruicJi^NiatJi-Froich, 
Nat\Ji\Fraich, or Nad-FrdicJi, in which the first "element 
owing to its. proclitic position has suffered curtailment. It is 
to be noticed that Fraech, genitive Fraich, was a separate 
personal name of unknown signification, and that Niath- 
Fraich must have meant " Nephew of Fraech," or, more 
•precisely speaking, " Son of Fraech's Sister." And this is 
not mere inference, for we have the positive statement of 

' See Stokes's "Patrick,"' p. 331 ; also pp. 76, 194, 196, 214, 250, 468. 
W.P. E 



50 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

Cormac's Glossary that the meaning of the word nie, 
genitive ninth, was mac scthar, " sister's son,"^ and, as far 
as we know, that was its only meaning. In harmony with 
the foregoing interpretations, the St. Vigeans Stone (p. 17, 
above) should be rendered " Drost's nephew Voret for 
Fergus," rather than " Drost's kin Voret and Fergus." Simi- 
larly in the case of the corresponding vocable- on the 
Newton Stone (p. 17, above), and of the poi of certain 
Ogam inscriptions in the south of Ireland. 

The earliest existing manuscript of Adamnan's Life of 
St. Columba dates from the beginning of the eighth century, 
and it is found that he distinguishes as a rule between two 
kinds of clan designations, (i) He mostly uses //^/^j where 
the native usage of later times recognises ua or 6, with the 
plural nepotcs rendered by ni or Jiui (Anglicised hy and d"), 
as for instance in Ncpos Lctltani, called in Irish Ua Liathain, 
Anglicised Olethan. So with the plural, as in Nepotcs 
Nellis= Ua Neil/, " the Hy-Neill or O'Neills"; but some of 



' See Stokes's edition of O'Donovan's "Translation of Cormac's Glossary," 
p. 121 ; also Stokes's paper on the " Bodleian Fragment of Cormac's Glossary " 
(read before the Royal Irish Academy, November 30th, 1S71), p. 8. 

- Our last reading of it is ipuai, but we should treat ipe as a spelling of ipcii, 
and equate it with ipiidi ; that is, unless it should prove more correct to regard 
ipuai as a spelling of ipuc. In either case we should treat both as accented on 
the final syllable (like mticSi), and equate them \\\\.\i pot as a foreshortening of 
some such a vocable as ipoi or dpoi. In all instances pot appears affixed 
(contrary to the Celtic habit oi prefixiftg) to the genitive of a personal name, as 
in Broinieiiaspoi (Poi of Broiniu), Corl>ipoi {Pot of Corb), and laanipoi (Poi of 
lacin). These come respectively from the counties of Cork, Kilkenny, and 
Wicklow ; but the same formula must have been in use in the south-west of 
Britain. At any rate, it is thence we have to suppose it transported to 
Brittany, where we have it in the well-known name of the king ErispOi- in the 
ninth century. It is made up of /<'/' affixed to the genitive of a man's name 
which occurs now and then in the pedigrees in the Book of Leinster as Aires, 
genitive Airiss as on fol. 326d, 353d, 356a, 363c. See vol. xxxij. of the 
■' Proceedings of the Antiq. of Scotland" for 1897-8, where, in a paper entitled a 
" Revised Account of the Inscriptions of the Northern Picts," Professor Rhys 
has dealt with several of the questions touched upon in this chapter : for this 
Tendering see more particularly pp. 347, 370. 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 51 

the race are found styled Nietk-NeiU^ where nietk is the 
etymological counterpart of nepotes. So we learn not only 
the equivalence of meaning of nieth and nepotes, but of both 
practically with ;^z, treated in Modern Irish as meaning grand- 
children or descendants. (2) Adamnan leaves untranslated 
and undeclined in his Latin a certain word mocu, as in 
Mocu-Sogin, Mocu-Dalon, and Mocu-Alti. In Irish Ogam 
inscriptions this is a very important word, and its most 
usual forms in them are moco, genitive niucoi ; but in Irish 
literature it appears as niaccu, genitive macaii, which began 
comparatively early to be regarded as made up oimacc-ui and 
meaning yz/zV/j nepotis. As a matter of fact, however, it is 
nothing of the kind, but a distinct word meaning race or 
kin in the concrete. Thus a family or tribe called Mocii 
Riintir by Adamnan is called Ddl Runtir in the Tripartite 
Life of Patrick,- and members of it are said in the Book of 
Armagh to be de genere Runtir. As to this last, it is to be 
noticed that the little word de, though necessary in the 
Latin, is not in the original Mocu Runtir, which literally 
rendered would be geyius Runtir, as if each individual of the 
group personified the whole. The real explanation is that 
the Picts had not learnt to speak of any race apart from 
some individual member of it : to them " the kin of A. B." 
was " kin A. B." Mocu here followed by a genitive is 
Goidelic, while the Pictish inscription at Aboyne on the 
Deeside has the words in apposition.'^ 

In order to get over the difficulty Adamnan sometimes 
interposes the word gente, as in the instance Trenanum, 
gente Mocuruiitir, " Trenan, Mocu-Runtir by race or 
family." At other times he lets mocu do duty alone, as 
in his mention de Erco fure Mocudruidi qui in Coloso 

1 See Skene in his " Chronicles of tlie Picts and Scots," p. 352, where he 
purports to copy the Annals of Ulster for a.d. 693. 

" See Stokes's edition, p. 226 ; and as to the meaning of mocu, see Rhys's 
" Lectures on Welsh Philology, ' pp. 408, 409. 

^ See the "Proceedings of the Antiquaries of Scotland," 1898-9, pp. 351-3. 

E 2 



52 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

insula conunanebat. The island was one of those now 
called Colonsay, and the clan to which Ere belonged took 
its name from a druid, somewhat like the Mactaggarts 
and MacPhersons of later times, so named after ancestors 
in hoh' orders. When the great person in the past of a 
famih' was a man and not a woman, the word offspring is 
inadmissible in the rendering, and the nearest approach to 
the original may be made perhaps by using " kin " : thus 
Aliliuc mocu Buain, the name of the king of Daln-Araide 
(between Loch Neagh and Belfast Loch) who bought 
Patrick as a slave, might be rendered " Miliuc kin of Buan"; 
and so with the following inscriptions from the county of 
Waterford, Catabor^ uioco P^in'corb[i], " Cathbar kin of Fer- 
Corb," and Gosoctas mticoi Macorbi, " the Monument of 
Guasacht kin of Macorb." A wider choice of words is 
permissible in a case like ad Insolas Maccuchor in the 
Book of Armagh, as we might render it " to the Islands 
of the family or tribe of Cor " — they are the isles at the 
Skerries, off the north-west corner of Antrim ; and when a 
woman is the chief ancestral figure we are at liberty to use 
a word meaning progen}'and lineal descendants. But what 
is one to make of the double genitive maqiii uiucoi, which 
frequently occurs in ancient Ogam inscriptions, and must 
mean Ji/n generis or filii gentis ? Take, for example, the 
following from Corkaguiny in Kerry : Maqqui Erccias 
inaqqui mucoi Dovinias- that is to sa)' " (The Monument) of 
Mac Erce son of the kin of Dubinn," where the ancestress 
Dubinn (genitive Diiibne)\'\di'~, given her name to Corco Duibne, 

' We are not certain vvliether we should read Catabor or Catahar ; but com- 
pare Ptolemy's name — Vellabori — of a tribe in the south-west of Ireland, 
Velvor filia Broho of a somewhat late Cardiganshire inscription, and Falhliai; 
a champion's name mentioned in O'Curry's "Manners and Customs of the 
Ancient Irisli," iii. 158. 

- From a rubbing supjjlied by the Rev. Edmond Barry, and recently verified 
by Professor Rhys. The stone is at Lord Ventry's residence in the neighbour- 
hood of Dingle. 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 53 

Anglicised Corkaguiny, now the name af a barony in the 
west of Kerry. Or to come back to Wales, take the following 
Ogam at Hridelt in the north of Pembrokeshire : Nettasagru 
maqui niiicoi Bred, which may be rendered {Monuinentui/i) 
Nettasagriis filii generis Bred. These and the like inscrip- 
tions take us back without doubt to the words of Caesar 
already cited : in fact they lead us back a little further, to 
wit, to a stage antecedent to the consideration of the paternity 
suggested by him. In Irish literature this state of society 
is found surviving in a form which looks like polyandry, as 
in the case of a king of Tara, supposed to have reigned 
about the beginning of the Christian era. He was known 
as Lugaid of the Red Stripes, and said to be the son of 
three brothers, the sons of Eochaid Feidlech.^ Or take the 
Mac Lir family of Irish legend : one of its leading figures 
was the famous Manannan Mac Lir, and this is how he is 
introduced in the opening verses of a poem in the well- 
known story of Bricriu's Feast, in the Book of the Dun 
Cow, fo. 50a : 

Fegaid mac hechraidi Lir, 

do maigib Eogai7i Inh'tr ! 

Behold the son of the heroes of Ler, 

From the plains of Eogan of Invcr ! 

It is, perhaps, relevant also to mention here that a state 
of things in which the children were the children of the 
family, so to say, and owned no fathers in particular, 
rendered necessary some arrangement of the nature of 
fosterage, an institution known to have been of vast import- 
ance among the ancient Goidels, including among them 
the family of Pwytt, king of Dyfed, as mentioned in the 
Mabinogi already cited. 

A man who styles himself Nepos Vepogeni, or Son of 
Vepogen's Sister, without naming her, leaves us no evidence 

' See the " Book of Leinster," fol. 124b, 151a ; the " Revue Celtique," xvi. 
148-50 ; O'Mahony's Keating, pp. 287-8, and the footnote on page 37 above. 



54 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

that the community to which he belonged made much of 
its v/omen. That community appears to have recognised no 
paternit)', but to have reckoned descent by birth alone ; it 
is possible, however, that at a previous stage in its history 
the family was constituted on strictly matriarchal lines. 
At all events other cases occur, which seem favourable to the 
belief in the former existence of matriarch}'. Certain Ogam 
inscriptions, for instance, have been found in the neighbour- 
hood of Dingle, in Kerry, ending with the ancestress's 
name, nominative Do7>i)ii[^s\ genitive Dovi}iia\s\ reduced in 
Mediaeval Irish to Ditbinn or Z>7/(^zW, genitive D?tibne,rQ<A^&c- 
tively, as already mentioned. In the next place, certain well- 
known characters in Irish literature are distinguished by 
the mother's name, such as CoucJiobar son of Nessa, and 
Fergus soil of Roig, with which should be compared the 
Welsh Gofafinon son of Don. Lastly, the legends of heroic 
Erin picture the ladies sitting with their husbands at their 
banquets, and treated by them as their equals ; and some- 
times courtship is represented in Irish story as initiated by 
the woman, not to mention the doings of such personages 
as Queen Macha or Queen Maive, Supposing that proof 
were to be found that Irish society began with matriarchy, 
several things in Irish literature could be pointed out as 
admitting of easy explanation as survivals ; but we dare 
not reverse the argument and say that they admit of no 
other explanation, and that we must therefore postulate 
matriarchy. 

To say the least of it, however, there is nothing to^ 
suggest that individual women might not enjo)' great 
consideration among the early Goidels : there is much 
to the contrar}', and in this connection a question offers 
itself as to the nature of the theology evolved by a people 
of the kind. Clearly, if the)' reckoned descent by birth 
alone, and provided they were given to ancestor worship, 
they must have had female divinities. Unfortunately it 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 55 

happens that the whole range of Irish Hterature suppHes 
extremely few references in express terms to divinities of 
any kind, and the few to be found are of the most meagre 
and precarious description. In other words, the Irish pan- 
theon forms but a very dim background to Irish history ; 
but in that vanishing picture it is very remarkable that the 
goddesses loom larger than the gods. Thus we have already 
referred to Anu, said by Cormac to have been considered 
the mother of the gods, and we pointed out traces of her 
in Welsh pedigrees derived probably from Goidelic sources 
in Britain. Cormac mentions also an analogous figure 
whom we may call Biianu, genitive Biianann ;^ and to this 
latter he gives the position of mother or nurse of Irish 
heroes, and of teacher who taught them feats of arms. We 
next come to the story of the Second Battle of Moytura,^ 
which mentions a people who invaded Ireland at different 
points, and bore the name of Fir Domnann, or the Men of 
Domnu. They came from the west coast of Britain, where 
we shall presently find them to have borne the name 
Dumnonii or Dumnonians. But the interest of their name 
consists in the fact that the Irish form. Fir Domnann, is as 
it were Viri Dumnonis, taken from that of a goddess Domnu 
(genitive Domnami). She was presumably considered to 

* The name is given as Btiananu, making probably a genitive Bzianaimie, 
but this is a comparatively late declension, superseding the older Biiami, 
genitive Btianatm. Cormac also gives Anu a genitive, Anaitine, s.v. ana, 
and Danann is sometimes made into Danainne, while Danati^i or Dotiann 
occasionally functions as nominative : see the " Book of Leinster," fol. iia. 

- The story, which will be found published, with a translation by Stokes, in 
the " Revue Celtique,"xii. 52 — 130, treats the Fir Domnann as belonging to the 
Fomori, a fabulous race of elves or demons whose name has been supposed 
by Stokes (pp. 128, 130) to be derived in part from the same source as the 
latter syllable of the English word fiightmare, to which we may add that in 
Scotch Gaelic stories the singular occurs as, fof/ihair, meaning a giant. On the 
other hand, popular etymology has associated the Fomori witli the sea, miiir, 
as if the meaning had been that of a people who were 7^ }nicir, " up and down 
the sea, all over the sea "; hence the term tended to mean invaders who came 
over the sea, and sea rovers or pirates generally. 



56 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

be their ancestress, and their leader is styled IndecJi iimc 
Dc DoDinann, " Indech son of the goddess Domnu," where 
7nai\ " son," has probably to stand for a distant descendant. 
At any rate, Domnu does not figure as intervening in the 
story, and we may presume that many generations had 
passed away between her and Indech ; not to mention that 
Fir Domnann is probably to be equated with Dumnonii, 
one of the most widel}'-spread designations of the Goidels 
of Britain. 

Far more common, but just as little explicit, are the 
references to the goddess Danu, after whom were called 
the Tuatha or Tuath Dv Danann, " the goddess Danu's 
Tribes or Tribe"; also Fir /)tv?, " the Goddess's Men." 
No one of the leading figures in the many allusions to the 
Tuatha De Danann is styled Son or Daughter of Danu, 
and as the people called after her are usually spoken of in 
the plural as tuatha, "tribes," she was probably regarded as 
belongmg to a distant past. Here we have the advantage 
of a Welsh identification : Danu is the Don of the Mabinogi 
of Math son of Mathonw}' ; but at the stage in which Don 
is there found she is no goddess : she is briefly referred to 
as sister to the king and mother of his successor, Gwydion 
son of Don, and of his brothers and sister, as already stated 
(p. 37). All this would have to be tumbled upside down 
by those who .seem to think that the Mabinogion have been 
imported into Wales as Irish stories from Ireland.^ The 

' Such appears to be the view taken by Professor Kuno Meyer in an article on 
Gael and Brython in the " Transactions of the Cynmirodorion Society," 1895-6. 
especially where he speaks (pp. 71-3) to " the deposits of Irish legendary lore " 
which he finds, for example, in the AJal>i>iogiofi. He instances the Irish story 
o^ Alesce Ulad, in which a party of Ultonians are induced to be entertained in 
an iron house, the iron of which is concealed by the timber covering it both 
inside and out. When they are found to have drunk freely, their attendants 
leave them one by one, and the door is shut. Then fuel is piled up round the 
iron house and set fire to. The story relates how the inmates at Icngtli 
realised their position, and liuw some ol tliem forced their way out. Now an 
iron house stt)ry is referred to in the Mabinogi of Branwen ; but, so far as the 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 57 

view which recommends itself to us is that they are stories 
which were current among the Goidels of old in Britain 
and, in such instances as that here indicated, they represent 
a far earlier state of things than can be said of any Irish 
story extant about the Tuatha De Danann. 

In one case we see, perhaps, a little more closely the deifi- 
cation in process : this takes us back for a moment to the 
barony of Corkaguiny and the name of the ancestress 
Dubinn. A story,^ which, as we have it, was committed to 
writing in surroundings where Aryan ideas had begun to 
prevail, makes Dubinn sister to Cairbre Muse, who appears 
to have been king in the west of Munster in the third century. 
They had a son called Core Duibne, and the story relates 
how Cairbre's realm was visited with bad seasons in conse- 
quence of the incest, and how Core Duibne had to be taken 
outside his father's realm by the Druid who undertook the 
boy's education. Now several of the Ogam inscriptions of 
Corkaguiny, which may be said to belong to the fifth or 
the sixth century, end with the name of the ancestress. Thus 
one at Ballintaggart, near Dingle, reads : Alaqqui lat'ipi 
maqqui Mucoi Dovvinias, " (The Stone) of larip son of the 
Kin of Dubinn." Another, preserved at Burnham House, 
Lord Ventry's residence in the same neighbourhood, has 
been read thus (p. 52) : Maqqui Erxcias maqqui Mucoi 
Dovinias, "(The Stone) of Mac Erce, son of the Kin of 
Dubinn." But the most remarkable one stands on a head- 
land beyond Dunmore Head and looks out on the Atlantic 
Ocean as if prophetically appealing to the Gaels beyond : 

brevity of the Welsh allows us to judge, it cannot have been the Mesce Ulad 
which the narrator had his story from : most likely the iron house had figured 
in more than one tale. Further, as the iron house incident is there avowedly 
Irish, one can hardly regard it as a very instructive sample of "the deposits 
of Irish legendary lore " in the Mabinogion : it is desirable to have more 
instances, and of a less self-confessed description. 

' See the Book of the Dun Cow, fob 54 1 ; and Rhys's " Celtic Heathendom," 
pp. 308, 9. 



58 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

it may have been the monument of a son of the chief com- 
memorated on the last-mentioned stone, as it reads on the 
one edge, Eir maqqui Maqqul Enias, " The Stone of Ere, 
son of Mac Erce," and on the other, Mii Dovinia, "of My 
Dubinn." Here one would have expected a longer legend 
making "Ere son of Mac I- rce, son of the Kin of My 
Dubinn," as that is probabl}' how we are to construe. But 
what is most remarkable, if our reading should prove correct,^ 
is the use of the prefix mu or mo, which is familiar to 
every student of Irish hagiology as a mark of respect and 
affection prefixed to the names of certain saints. Thus in 
Corkaguiny we have first simply Dovinias, " Dubinn's" ; then 
Ahi Dovinia\s\ " My Dubinn's," with the reverential prefix ; 
and had not the deification been arrested by the advance 
of Christian ideas we should have probably had the name 
in a third stage : that is, Dubinn's son would have been 
known in Irish literature not as Core Duibne, but as Core 
De Dnibne, or the progeny- of the goddess Dubinn. 

The folklore of Ireland from Meath to Beare Haven and 
Corkaguiny abounds with allusions to an old woman of 
fabulous age called Bera, Beara, or Beirre, and she is pro- 
babl)' to be identified with the Beara whom certain stories 
make the daughter of a king of Spain, and wife of Eogan 
Mor or Mog Nuadat, who, with Conn the Hundred-fighter, 
is fabled to have divided Erin into a northern and a 
southern half between them in the second century. But 
in those stories Bera's name is mostly given with the prefix 

* It is only right to warn the reader that the reading of the Ogams on the 
same edge as Dovitiia is contested by the Rev. Kdniond Barry and by 
Mr. Macalister. Professor Rhys, having become aware that the former read 
it differently, took an opportunity of re-examining the stone in 189 1, and 
the result only confirmed him in his former opinion. Mr. Macaiister's remarks 
in point will be found in his " Studies in Irish Epigraphy," p. 56. 

^ It is not known precisely what the word Core meant ; nor is it evident that 
Corco in Corco-Duibnc (which also occurs as Cona Duibtie) is the plural of 
Core, as if core, corco, meant child, children, or the like, respectively. See 
" Pro. See. Antiq. Scotland," xxxij. 355-7. 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 59 

fHo (or mu), as in the case of Mu-Dovinia, and then it is 
found written Monicra. The stories^ have not been found 
so far as we know in any very ancient manuscript ; but 
there appears to be no reason to suppose them to have begun 
late. They would seem, however, to have been developed 
relatively so late that Bera has only succeeded in attaining 
to the status of a witch or wise woman, of a nun or hag, 
of a revered person and a giantess, not quite to/iiiat of 
a goddess. (^T'^^^;^/^^^'^^ -^'^ """^ 

Here also attention may be relevantly directed to the 
great place which women occupy in the legendary account 
of the early colonisations of Ireland. Take, for example, 
Scota treated as chief ancestress of the Milesian Irish, and 
as giving her name to all the Scots. She is not, at any rate 
in this context, to be disposed of as a mere myth ; for a 
cognate eponym of the other sex might have served equally 
well for mythic purposes. The most remarkable instance, 
perhaps, is the case of Cessair, said to have taken possession 
of Ireland before the Flood : her wanderings are made to 
begin with Noah refusing her and hers room in the ark 
which he was building. She is represented landing at Du7i 
na m-Barc, " the Fortress of the Barks," somewhere between 
Bantry and Tralee. The Irish historian Keating apologises 
for mentioning Cessair, and suggests it as his reason for 
doing so, that he found her story in old books, such probably 
as the Book of Leinster, folios 4, 5, and those used by Duald 
mac Firbis, a well-known Irish antiquar}^ of the earlier part 
of the seventeenth century, who compiled from old manu- 
scripts his annals known as the Chronicum Scotoruvi. His 
first entry is under Ayiuo Mmidi 1599, and it runs thus: "In 

^ See O'Curry's volume containing '' The Battle of Magh Leana " and 
"The Courtship of Momera," pp. xx. 39, 166, and 3i«, and compare 
O'Flaherty's " Ogygia," p. 274, where he has Bera filia Ocha pri?icipis 
Britonu?n Mannue, whatever that may have exactly meant ; also Professor 
Kuno Meyer's "Vision of Mac Conglinne," pp. 131-4, 208-10, and Professor 
Khys's " Celtic Folklore." 



6o THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

this year the daughter of one of the Greeks came to 
Hibernia, whose name was Ileriu, or Berba, or Cesar, and 
fifty maidens, and three men with her. Ladhra was their 
conductor, who was the first that was buried in Hibernia. 
This the antiquaries of the Scots do not relate."^ This it 
will be seen equates or co-ordinates Cessair with Erin, 
the epon)'m of Eriu, genitive Erenn, " Ireland," and with 
Berba, which there is no sufficient reason for altering into 
the better- known name Banba of another eponym of the 
island. Berba is elsewhere only known as the name of 
the river I^arrow, in which we seem accordingly to have 
another ancestral name. The most reasonable view to 
take of the legend of Cessair is, that it was a local 
tradition of the Aborigines of the south-west of Ireland, 
who by making Cessair the first coloniser asserted their 
own priority of possession to all other peoples in the 
countr}'. The s\'nchronisers, not knowing what to make of 
this, accepted the alleged priority, and placed the whole 
story before the Flood. Thereb)' they rid themselves of 
difficulties from two possible sources, to wit, the context of 
the story with the other events occup)'ing their attention, 
and the later fortunes of Cessair's descendants. The legend 
associates Cessair and her companions with various localities 
in the south and west of Ireland, together with others lying 
so far north as Slieve Beagh in Fermanagh ; not to mention 
that Ireland is occasionall}' found designated Cessair's 
Island.- We gather, therefore, that Cessair may have been 
the epon)mous heroine of a race occup\'ing the whole of 
the southern half of Ireland and more, together ver\' possibly 
with the nearest portions of the west and south-west of 

' .See the opening of the Four Masters' Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, 
and the editor O'Donovan's notes on the place-names involved ; Joyce's 
edition of Keating's " History of Ireland," part i. , p]3. 52-5 ; and Heniiessy's 
(Rolls edition of the) " Chronicmn Scotoruni," pp. xxv.-xxxij. 2, 3. 

- -See Tochtnarc Moneni [read Momera] in C)'(."vur\ 's " Battle of Magh 
Leana," p. 154. 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 6i 

Britain as its earlier home.^ However that may be, it 
proves to our satisfaction that to show a predilection for 
ancestresses over ancestors was Ivernian : that it was also 
Aryan we are inclined to doubt, but that, where it has been 
found among the peoples of these islands, it is to be traced 
rather to the Aboriginal element in a mixed population 
promiscuously termed Celtic. 

The influence of Christianity must have by degrees put 
an end to the social system to which we have been referring, 
and this raises questions of great difficulty as to dates and 
localities, on which we cannot enter. So we return to our 
view, that if the reckoning of descent by birth alone was 
not Aryan, it must have been accepted by the Goidelic 
Celts from the Aborigines, which would go far to prove the 
numerical importance of the latter. It is known to have 
been Pictish, but was it also Celtic and Aryan ? We are dis- 
posed to think that it was not, though we readily admit that 
the negative cannot be proved. Moreover it is right to say 
that the following passage in chapter xxi. of the Germania^ 
of Tacitus is redolent of the same ancient menage : Sororum 
filiis idem apud avunculum qui ad patrevi Jwnor. Quidain 
sanctiorem artiorenique liunc nexum sanguinis arbitrantur 
et in accipiendis obsidibus magis exigunt, tamquavi ctiani 

1 The name Cessair, genitive Ccsra, admits of being regarded as derived 
from a stem, cestari, and should M. Salomon Reinach's conjecture prove 
correct, that the Cassiterides originally meant the British Isles, and that 
Kacra-'iTepos, "tin," was, like several other Greek names of metals, called simply 
after the country or the people of the country in which it was found, our 
Cessair would be found to supply a necessary link in the reasoning. I'or 
M. Reinach's view see " L' Anthropologic " for 1892, pp. 275-81 ; also Rhys's 
letter on Cassiterides in the "Academy," October 5, 1895, pp. 272-3, and see 
further pp. 298, 342, 366, 390, 414, 438, 524, 547. 

- Compare chapter viii., which treats female hostages as more efficacious in 
the case of the Germans — adeo tit efficaciiis obligentur anivii civitatuni, quilnis 
inter obsides ptiellaqnoque nobilcsimperantur ; and also a f)assagein Suetonius's 
Augustus, 21, to the following effect : A quibusdam vera [the last people 
mentioned seem to have been Germans] novum geitiis obsidum, feminas, 
exigere tentaverit, quod 7iegligerc mariuiii piguora seniiebaf. 



62 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

animum firmiiis ct domiim latins teticant. " There is the 
same regard shown for the sons of the sisters by the uncle 
as by their father. Some think this tie of blood more 
binding and closer, and insist on it more when they receive 
hostages, on the theory that it restrains their impulses more 
powerfully, and has a wider control over the family." 
The words are unfortunately so indefinite that we have no 
clue to the identity of the tribes the historian had in view; 
so it is impossible to say whether they were likely to have 
been mixed with any Aboriginal race practising the same 
customs and enjoying the same institutions as the Aborigines 
of the British Isles.^ 

We admit that the foregoing argument is not quite 
decisive, and we now turn to others of a more purely 
linguistic nature, and leading to a more decided conclu- 
sion. So we revert for a moment to the dedicator of the 
bronze tablet found at Colchester : we saw that he describes 
himself as Lossio Veda, Nepos Vepogeni, Caledo, and that 
Veda appears as part of the name of one of the kings in 

- Say somewhere between the mouth of the Rhine and that of the Elbe, 
where tliere was an amber coast, and wliere Tacitus would seem to have heard 
of a people partly Celtic and partly 'i'eutonic, whom he has mixed up with the 
^Estii of the amber coast of tlie Baltic. Witness the following passage in the 
Gerniania, 45 : — Ergo jam dextro Suebici maris litore ALstiorum gentcs 
adluuntur, qtiibus riius habitusque Sucborum, lingua firitannica propior. 
matrem deum vitierantur. insigne siiperstitionis formas aprorum gcstant : id 
pro armis hominumque tutela sectiruni dcir cultorem etiam inter hostis pnrstat : 
rarus ferri, frequens fuslium usus. frumenta ceterosque friictus patienlius quam 
pro solita Germanorum inertia laborant. sed et mare scrutantur, ac soli 
omnium iucinui/i, quod ipsi glesitm vacant, inter vada atque in ipso litore legunt. 
How well llie allusion to the goddess would fit Goidelic surroundings need 
not be dwelt upon ; and, as to the language, glesum is as easily explained by 
means of Celtic as of Teutonic. Witness the Irish ^/a/w, gloin, "glass or 
crystal," Welsh gldn, glain {gemma, tessera), for an older gles-inu-s : while 
a language said to come nearer the Jhitannica would exactly describe the 
position of Goidelic as compared with Brythonic. The sort of people which 
the Gerniania suggests might be Aborigines who had first become Cioidels in 
speech and later Teutons, while retaining iiabits and customs which ibey 
practised before they acquired any Aryan language at all. 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 63 

the Pictish list, where also Vepogeni is to be found, cur- 
tailed, it is true, to Vepog, and written Vipoig. But while 
it is probable that Veda is not Celtic, it is certain that 
Vepogeni^ is, and we compare it with Gaulish names like 
Vepiis and Vepo-talos, of unknown meaning, and Matu-genos, 
" well-born," or Caniulo-genos^ "offspring of Camulos." Thus 
we seem to have in Vepogeni an early instance of the 
Pictish habit of borrowing names and other words from 
the Celts. The interest of the present instance centres 
in the way in which the name Vepogenos was treated. This 
would be the Brythonic and Gaulish form, while in Goidelic 
it would have- been approximately Vequagenas. Now the 
study of the laws of mutation of initial consonants in 
the Neo-celtic languages goes to show that the ending of 
the nominative must have been dropped early, so that the 
foregoing forms would be shortened to Vepogen and Vequa- 
gen. Another process of curtailment would be to drop the 
thematic vowel of the first element in the compound, bring- 
ing the result approximately to Veb-gen and FecJi-gen. 
But the reduction of Vepogen to Vepog, which is what 
underlies Vipoig, is impossible on Celtic ground, whether 
Brythonic or Goidelic, while Pictish offers a simple and 
natural explanation. In that language it can be shown 
that enn or en was a common ending of the genitive case, 
so that Vepogen must in the long run have sounded to the 
Picts as a genitive, whence was readily inferred a simpler 
form, Vepog, which we should call nominative in the case 
of Aryan speech. 

This leads us to consider the Pictish genitive somewhat 
further, and to mention another instance in Drosten, which 
may be regarded as the genitive of the Pictish name Drost 



* Vepogenos was, perhaps, the name represented by the abbreviation VEP 
on the native coins of the Brythons north of the Humber, reading VEP COR F, 
for, let us say, VEPOGENVS COROTICI FILIVS : see Khys's "Celtic 
Britain," p. 41 ; and p. xv., coni 5. 



64 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ri.) 

on a stone alreadx' mentioned as being at St. Vigeans, near 
Arbroath. Take also the well-known Newton Stone in Aber- 
deenshire, whichhas in Ogam the genitive, l^orrerin} of aname 
which occurs as Vaur in the other lettering on the same stone. 
This genitive occasionally appears in old Irish inscriptions, 
such as one on the island of Valencia which reads, Loziri~ 
inaqui Erpcnii, " The Monument of Lugar son of Erp." 
Had Rj'penn been Goidelic, it should, in order to be on 
a level with Logiri and viaqui, have been Ej'pcnnas, or at 
least Erpenna ; but the presence of the consonant p is very 
fair evidence that the name is other than Goidelic. The 
Picts appear to have had genitives also in ann, oii\ri\ and 
in\ji\. Instances of the first-mentioned occur in the mixed 
inscriptions found in the Shetlands, such as Meqqddrroann, 
which might be rendered probably Filii Druidis ; and 
dattrrann on the same stone .seems to be the Pictish 
genitive of the Norse word for dauglitcr!' As to onn, the 
Book of Deer mentions a grant of land to the Church of 
Aberdour, in which among other names of men occur a 
nominative Culii, and a genitive Culcon : they are probably 
cases of one and the same name.^ We have it now and 

' See the " Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland," vol. xxxij. 
pp. 360-4. 

- This is a reading recently made out by Professor Rhys ; but it is not quite 
certain whether Logiri is to be equated with the Lugiroi Alacm Lugir, or with 
Locgairi, the genitive of Loegaire mac Neill, the name of the king of Ireland 
in whose time Dubthach ^Nlnccu Lugir was chief poet (StoVes's "Goidelica," 
pp. 86, 126). Peeves in his Adamiian's I'lta toiutn/xr (p. 350) cites after 
Ussher a passage the writer of wliich thought that main, viocu, or mucoi had 
something to do with muc, "a swine," so that in his hands the chief poet, 
I). Maccu Lugir, becomes subulcus regis I.oigeri filii Nil ; l)ut compare 
Stokes's " Patrick," pp. 122, 324. 

^ " Pro. Soc. Antiq. Scotland," xxvi. 297-300, where the dd of Metpj- 
ddrroanvi .should probably be pronounced <1, and Nahhiv7ddaB%s taken to mean 
A^a/i/i/7'7t7iif(i6ds. as a more likely antecedent of the curtailed form A'a/dtui's or 
Natdod's, which became historical as the name of the man who discovered 
Iceland. 

■• From the same MS. one might quote Abber-deon (Aberdeen) but for the 
uncertainty that the Dee is the river implied and not I he Don. The entries 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 65 

then in the old inscriptions of Ireland, as, for instance, in an 
Ogam in the Kilkenny Museum, reading, in two lines : — • 

Mucoi Atr. . . f (The Monument) of the kin of A., 
Bivadon, [ namely, Bivad. 

Perhaps, however, the order intended was the reverse, 
" The Monument of Bivad, kin of A." Lastly, we have a 
remarkable instance of the genitive in t'nn in the name 
of the district called the Mearns, approximately the 
county of Kincardine. A/cams is derived from a native 
name, jWag- Gerginn or Gergind} which is also found 
as Mag Cirgin, the Plain of Gerg, Greg, Giric or Ciric ; 
for the name appears to have had several forms, between 
which it is not easy to decide, not to mention that it has been 
confounded with that of St. Ciricus. We have a remarkable 
instance of this genitive in an Ogam inscription from the 
townland of Ballinvoher in Corkaguiny, county Kerry. It 
reads, Cohnagni maqiii Vitalin, "The monument of Coeman 

in Gaelic, including the names here in question, will be found printed and 
translated in Stokes's "Goidelica," pp. 106-111 ; and a propos of Vepogen 
and abber may be mentioned the old Welsh Morgant (mod. Welsh Morgan), 
which appears borrowed as Morcunt, Alorciinii, JSIorgainn : all three occur 
in the genitive, and Morgunn in the nominative. Query, whether such Pictish 
names as Talargait, Talorcen, Talorc, and kindred forms are not all adaptations 
of a Brythonic Talaigait ox I'alargant, "Silver-forehead"? 

^ "Book of Leinster," fol. 319c; Skene's "Chronicles of the I'icts and 
Scots," p. 319 ; also Skene's " Celtic Scotland," i. 295, where he purports to 
give Terra Circin from the Irish annalist Tigernach. For Gcrg see O'Curry, 
i. ccclxxv. ; III. 168, 307. The name Gerg occurs frequently in the tragic 
story of the courtship of Gerg's daughter Ferb in the Book of Leinster, 
fol. 253a — 259b, where it is mostly nominative Gcrg, genitive Gehg (also Gerg). 
His house was in Glenn-Gerg in Ulster, but there was another Glenn-Gerg in 
Carlow : see the " Four Masters," a.d. 1015. We recognise the genitive also 
in the patronymic of Munremur mac Gerrcind, an Ulster champion introduced 
to checkmate the Connaught magician Curoi mac Dairi in the Tain Bo Cualnge 
in the " Book of the Dun Cow," fol. 71b. Various forms of this name 
occurred in Scotland, as will be seen under Grig in the index to Skene's 
Chronicles of the Picts and Scots ; and some of tliem were stereotyped in 
the name of the JNIearns church, Eccles-greig or Ealis-girg, now called St. 
Cyrus, dedicated to St. Ciricus : see Skene's "Celtic Scotland,"!. 333, 4. 

W.P. F 



66 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

son of Fidlin," where correct Goidelic would seem to require 
Coimagni juaqui Vitalini. The scores are all certain, and 
the third genitive never had a final i on the stone.^ 

All this has to do chiefly with the inflection of the names 
to which we have referred ; and though it supplies convincing 
evidence to the presence of some element other than Celtic, 
whether Goidelic or Brythonic, Irish nomenclature provides 
us with a still more sweeping argument to the same effect. 
We allude to an important group of Irish names formed 
much in the same way as Hebrew names are represented 
chosen in the Old Testament. We begin with an instance 
from a comparatively late manuscript, namel}', that which 
contains the story of the Battle of Magh Leamhna : — A 
certain Munster prince called Mogh Neid, " Slave of Ned," 
had a son called Eoghan Mor, or " Big Eoghan," who was 
fostered by one of his nobles called Nuadha. One day 
when Eoghan, in the company of the Druid, whose name 
was Deargdamhsa, were watching the building of a rcitli 
for Mogh Neid, the workmen came upon a stone which they 
were unable to lift to its place, but the boy Eoghan Mor 
went and lifted it at once, to everybody's astonishment; 
whereupon the workmen exclaimed, " This is a noble slave 
that Nuadha has." The Druid then said, " That name shall 
be upon him for ever," that is, Mogh Nuadhad, " the Slave 
of Nuadha."- It is right to sa)' that Ned and Nuadha were 
names of gods, the former a god of war of the ancient 
Goidels, and the latter a god the remains of one of whose 
temples have been found at Lydney, near the Severn, 

1 The stone is in a glass case in the Irish National Museum in Dublin, 
where it was seen by Prof. Rhys in July, 1894. A paper on it by the Lord 
Bishop of Limerick will be found in the third series of the " Proceedings of the 
Royal Irish Academy," 1893, pp. 374-9, where he would identify Fidlin and 
Welsh Givytlielin with Vitalin. 

^ See Curry's " Battle of Magh Leana" (Dublin, 1855), pp. 1-3: we have 
given the names in the late spelling in which Curry left them ; the older forms 
would be Muz Nit or ?\eit and Mii' Nuadat. 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 67 

together with a representation of his person careering in a 
chariot over the waves of the sea ; and from inscriptions in 
honour of him we know that his name had in Roman times 
the form Nodens or Nudens, genitive Nodentis, Nudentis, 
or Nodontis, the termination of which is doubtless Latin:^ 
in Welsh the name has become Nil'Sf and also £7i(t. It is 
needless to point out how such names as Mogh Neid and 
Mogh Nuadhad resemble such instances as Abdiel, " Ser- 
vant of El," Abdastartus, "Servant of Astarte," and others 
from Semitic lands. 

To go back to an older manuscript, namely, the " Book of 
the Dun Cow," which was written as we have it before the 
end of the year 1 106, we have there one of the oldest and 
most weird of fairy tales, which relates how a fairy damsel 
came to entice Condla the Red, one of the two sons of 
Conn the Hundred-fighter, to go away with her to the 
Land of the Living, and how Conn sent for Coran, his 
Druid, to counteract her wiles. Coran tried to do so, and 
failed ; the youthful Condla leaps into the fairy's glass boat 
and away they sail till they are lost to the sight of Conn 
and his astonished friends. Before Conn had stirred from 
the spot his other son, called Art, came to them, when his 
father exclaimed, " Art is now solitary {oenfer, oeiiia'), for 
he has no brother." " That is the word," said the Druid ; 
"that will be his name for ever, Art Oen/er." ^ Here again 
the Druid does his part, though in this instance he seems 
only to add an epithet, but Art, though common enough 
as an Irish name, probably meant as an appellative "a 

' See tlie Berlin Corpus, vol. vii. Nos. 137-141 ; also the numerous 
plates with v.hich are illustrated a posthumous work on the " Roman Antiquities 
at Lydney Park," by W. H. Bathurst, edited by C. VV. King (London, 1879) ; 
and a paper by Hiibner on the Sanctuary of Nodens in the "Jahrbiicher des 
Vereins von Alterthumsfreunden im Rheinlande," vol. Ixvii. pp. 29-46. 

- See the "Book of the Dun Cow," fol. 120 : the story will also be founH 
printed in Windisch's " Kurzgefasste irische Grammatik mit Lesestucken" 
(Leipsic, 1879;, pp. 1 18-120. 

F 2 



68 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

bear," in Welsh arth ; and its original use in this story may 
have been that of a nickname which was allowed to stand 
as part of the new name. 

The next two instances come also from the " Book of the 
Dun Cow, " but they belong to the Ultonian cycle of stories. 
The first to be mentioned relates to Derdriu, the heroine of 
the story of the Exile of the Sons of Usnech. Even before 
she was born there were forebodings of the troubles before 
her, and before her country on her account. For while 
yet unborn she screamed in a way that alarmed King 
Conchobar mac Nessa and his nobles as they sat ban- 
queting in the house of her father and mother ; and 
Conchobar's Druid, whose name was Cathbad, exclaimed on 
hearing the scream which the child had given {derdrestar) 
and said, " Verily it is a girl, and let Derdriu be her name." 
Here again it is the Druid of the party that fixes the name 
of the child, and the relation between the deponent verb 
^^;'rt^;rj-/cz/'," screamed," and Derdriu, purports to explain how 
he came to call her Derdriu. The rest of the story need not 
be reproduced here.^ The other story is one related of 
Cuchulainn's infancy." Conchobar and his nobles were 
gone one evening to feast at the house of Culann the Smith, 
who was a great man among them. Culann, when they 
were all supposed to have arrived, had his gates closed, and 
a famous watch-dog of his was let loose, as was his wont, to 
guard his possessions. The boy Cuchulainn, however, had 
been forgotten, and when he arrived he was attacked by 
Culann's watch-hound ; but, to everybody's astonishment, 
the boy killed the formidable beast. Culann afterwards 
complained loudly of his loss, whereupon Cuchulainn said 
that until the smith had another hound of the same breed 
reared to guard his possessions he would guard them : he 
would be himself Culann's watch-dog. Thereupon Cathbad 

' For tlie text see Windisch's " Irisclie Texte " (Leipsic, i8So), pp. 67-69. 
- See the " IJouk of the Dun Cow," fol. 6oa-6ia. 



THE PICTTSH QUESTION. 69 

the Druid said, " Let Cu-Chulainn (Culann's Hound) be thy 
name " ; for till then he had been known as Setanta Bee, 
or the Little Setantian, in reference probably to his race ; 
for we know that he cannot have been altogether of 
Ultonian descent, as he and his father are represented as 
never liable to the cess noinden or couvade sickness ^ of the 
Ultonians, while on the other hand the opposite coast of 
Britain had, according to Ptolemy, a Port of the Setantii 
somewhere near the mouth of the Ribble. Before leaving 
the incident which fixed Cuchulainn's name, let us observe 
that the Druid Cathbad who gave it him was also the school- 
master or tutor of the young nobles of the Ultonians : he 
had, we are told," no less than one hundred at the same time 
learning^r2^/</(?r/z^ or magic from him, andCiichulainn is found 
afterwards boasting that, in consequence of the teaching of 
Cathbad, he was an adept in " the arts of the god of magic," 
or whatever the term druidecht may have precisely meant. 
We now turn to the Mabinogion, which represent, though 
doubtless not very closely, the stories of the Goidels of 
ancient Wales ; and there we have at least two instances 
in point. One of them relates how Lew Lawgyffes got 
that name given him by Gwydion from an exclamation 
made by Arianrhod, his mother, when she saw him making 
a skilful hit at a wren. Thereby she unwittingly undid a 
destiny which she had put on her boy, that he should never 
have a name, whereby she had intended to protect her 
own reputation as a maiden. This is from the Mabinogi of 
Math,^ but the other occurs in that of Pwyft, Prince of Dyfed. 
This latter Mabinogi relates how Rhiannon, his queen, had 

' For the Irish account of this cess or suffering, see the "Berichte der k. 
sachs. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, philologisch-historische Classe," for 1884 
(pp. 336-47), where Windisch discusses the question and gi%'es some texts i-elating 
to it. 

" See the " Book of the Dun Cow," fol. 6ia and fol, 124b (printed in 
Windisch's Irische Texte, p. 325). 

■* See the Oxford Mabinogion, pp. 69-71 ; and Guest's Mabinogion, iii. 233-6 



70 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

her firstborn kidnapped by witches immediately after his 
birth, and how the child, a wondrously fine boy, was found 
by Teyrnon, a chieftain of Gwent, and brought up by his 
wife as her own child. When Teyrnon, however, who had 
been one of Pwylt's men, heard of Rhiannon's trouble, it 
struck him that the boy was unmistakably like Pwyft ; so 
he and his wife resolved to restore the boy to Pwylt and 
Rhiannon at their court in Dyfed. When Teyrnon and 
the bo)' were being entertained at table by Pwytt and 
Rhiannon, with the nobles of their court, Teyrnon related 
the wonderful story of his finding the bo}-, and appealed to 
all present to say whether they did not agree with him that 
the boy was Pwyit's son. They responded with one accord 
in the affirmative, whereupon Rhiannon exclaimed, " I call 
heaven to witness that this, if true, would deliver me of 
my anxiet}' {pryderi)^ Pendaran of Dyfed at once said, 
" Well hast thou named thy son Pryderi, and the namie 
Pryderi son of Pwj'it Penn Annwn befits him best." He 
had been called by Teyrnon and his wife "Gwri of the 
Golden Hair," but Pwyil insisted on his being now called 
Pryderi according to his mother's word when she got joyful 
news of him, and on his being fostered by Pendaran of 
Dyfed. ^ Pendaran is not called a Druid — nobody is called 
a Druid in the Mabinogion — but both he and Gwydion 
remind one of the Druids of Irish tales ; and, furthermore, 
the latter portion of the name of Penn-Daran, " Chief 
Daran," is probabl)' to be identified with that of the Irish 
Druid, Dalan, in the stor}- called the " Wooing of Etain," 
where also the name PLtain of the heroine happens to equate 
letter for letter with the latter part of the name Rhiannon, 
on the h)'pothesis of this last representing an earlier 
Rig- Anton,- meaning " King's Anton " or" Ro)'al Anton." 

' See the Oxford Mahimigioii, pp. iS-24 ; and Guest's MabiiiDgion, iii. 
60-70. 

- The text of the "Wooing of Etain ' lias been pubHshed in Windisch's 



THE PICTISH QUESTION. 71 

These stories transport us into an atmosphere more like 
Semitic than Aryan, and we notice — (i) first, that the per- 
manent name is drawn from some incident in one's history, 
and that as a rule it supersedes any name or nickname of 
one's infancy ; (2) secondly, that the name is fixed by the 
Druid or by the foster-father and tutor ; (3) lastly, that in 
the Mabinogion the part played by the mother is regarded as 
essential ; and it suggests that the giving of the name was 
originally her exclusive right, while the man who took it up 
only gave the transaction a certain stamp of ceremony and 
publicity. Now this plan of naming men and women could 
not help resulting in names differing widely from those 
given under the Aryan system of nomenclature ; but before 
proceeding to consider the latter, let us for a moment take 
stock of the names we have been discussing. Their pre- 
vailing nature may be gathered from the following enumera- 
tion of the most common of them: — (i) First may be 
mentioned those formed with mug- or mogh, " slave," such as 
Mogh Nuadhad, " the Slave of Nuadha." (2) Those formed 
with w«V/, "cropped, tonsured," are analogous, such as Mdil- 
Patraic, " the tonsured man (the slave) of Patrick," called 
in Latin Calvus Patricii. Names of this kind had a 
great vogue among Irish Christians, but the formula was 
doubtless pagan, and some of the names recorded appear to 
be so, such as Mail-genn, the name of the third century 
Druid who is related to have caused demons to kill king 
Cormac mac Airt, because he had become a Christian.^ 
(3) The same view may be taken of names with gille, such 
as Gilla-Muire, " the gillie or servant of (the Virgin) Mary," 
Anglicised Gilmore. Names of this class also became very 
common among Goidelic Christians, but we appear to have 
a pagan instance in Gilvaethwy son of Don, in the Mabinogi 

"Irische Texte," pp. 117-130, and a letter by Prof. Rhys on the equations 
here suggested will be found in the " Academy" for August 15th, 1896, p. 115. 
^ See the Four Masters, a.d. 266. 



72 THE ]Ve\sH people, (chap, ii.) 

of Math. (4) Another jvocable used for names of this kind 
was nun, genitive niat/iX a cha mpion ." as in Nia Segauiain, 
which appears in the genitive in Ogams as Neta Segamoruxs} 
"the Champion of Scgojiio" Segomo being in GauHsh 
theology a divinity equated with the Latin Mars. (5) So 
with fei\ " a man, vir" as in Fer Tlachtga- " the Man of 
Tlachtga." (6) The same idea approximately was doubtless 
expressed bye//, "hound," the meaning intended being that 
of a watch-hound, champion, and protector, as in Ci'i-chulai?iri, 
"Culann's Hound," Cii-Chorb, "' Corh'^^ Hound," Cu-Chocriclie, 
" the Hound of the Frontier, the Watch-dog of the Boun- 
dary." (7) Mac, " boy," was used in much the same way, 
as for instance in Mac Nanc, " Bo)- of the Boat or Ship," 
rendered by Adamnan Filins Navis'^ and Mac Tail,'' sup- 
po.sed to mean " Boy of the Hatchet" or "Son of the Adze." 
(8) Feminine names with dcr are analogous, such as Dei'- 
I^ugdach and Der-Fraich, meaning probably the maid or 
woman of Lugaid and Fracch respectively. (9) Names with 
niott, such as Niott- Vrecc, and Nioth-Fruich or Nad-Fraich, 
have already been sufficiently discussed. 

The foregoing will suffice to show how this kind of 
personal name forms a ver}' striking feature of Goidelic 
nomenclature, although the majority of Goidelic names are 
of another description, remaining, as they do, true to the 
Aryan system. On the other hand, it is not to be supposed 
that the above .syntactic names are in any way the outcome 
of a disintegration of Aryan names, or that as a group the)' 
date later here than the Ar\'an ones. The rever.se would be 



' See Rhys's "Celtic Heathendom," p. 33 ; and Stokes's "Celtic Declension,'' 
p. 87. It is to be noticed, that, though the later forms of the word for 
" champion," «/<?, niath, become confused with the words for " nephew," nia, 
nioth (p. 48 above), the Ogmic spellings were respectively tietta or nfta, and 
tiiotta. 

^ See the " Book of Leinster," fol. 326g. 

•* Reeves's Adaninan"s " I^ife of .St. Columba," preface, p. 9. 

"• Stokes's " Martyrology of Gorman," June nth and October 9th. 



THE PJCTISH QUESTION. 73 

nearer the truth. Take, for instance, those names which 
consist of a noun followed by a genitive, such as Mug Neit 
or Mug Nuadat. How little we know about Net or Ntiada 
it is needless to suggest; and as for Tlachtga in Per Tlachtga 
we know nothing, except that Irish story makes Tlachtga 
the daughter of a famous Druid called Mog Ruith, whom it 
brings in contact with the Simon Magus of Christian legend ; 
and that it associates Tlachtga's name with an ancient rath 
on the Hill of Ward (in Meath), where a fire used to be 
kindled at Allhallows, and distributed to the country round 
about.^ Then who knows anything about Corb ? And still 
we have not only Cu Chorb, "Corb's Hound," and Per Corb, 
" Corb's Man," but also Nia Corb, " Corb's Champion," Mac 
Corb, " Corb's Boy or Son," Mug Corb, " Corb's Slave," Art 
Corb, " Corb's Bear." So we should probably not be far 
wrong in supposing that Corb was a divinity, fetish, totem, 
or ancestor of the Aborigines. In any case Corb must be 
regarded as antecedent to such personal names as Cu Chorb, 
Per Corb, and the like. In other terms, these names are 
conglomerates involving elements derived from an ancient 
system, and the obscurity that surrounds them precludes, 
in most cases, one's regarding the class of personal names 
in which they are present as late. 

The Aryan system of personal names differed from 
the foregoing very strikingly. They may be classed under 
two heads : first come the full names, consisting not of 
words in syntactic relation to one another, but of two 
elements forming real compounds, such as, Sanskrit Candra- 
rdja, from candra, " shining, moon," and nija, " king," Greek 
t^ioyivtfi, " descendant of Zeus," Gaulish Ilevvo-oiJtvSo?, meaning 
" white-headed," from penno-s, " head," and vindos, " white," 
in Welsh Pen-wyn, and in Irish Cenn-fhinn, of the same 
meaning. The number of words employed for the pur- 
poses of this composition does not appear to have been at 
' For references see Rhys's. " Celtic Heathendom," p. 515, note 2. 



74 THE WELS^ PEOPLE, (chap, ii.) 

any time very great, but the best use was made of them 
when the Greeks formed not only ''l7r7rap;(os but also''Apxii"7ros ; 
and similarly in Old High German, HaribcrJit (English 
Herbert) and Berhthari^ Servian MilodragSLwd Dj^agoinil^aind 
so in some of our inscriptions, such as the one at Laugh- 
arne in Carmarthenshire reading BARRIVENDI FILIVS 
VENDVBARI.^ The two names occur in later Irish as 
Barrfhi7in and Finnbharr respectively, in Welsh Berwyfi 
and Gwynfar : both seem to have meant white-topped 
or white-headed. These are instances of the Arj'an full 
or compound name, but there was another class consisting 
of the full name reduced to one of the elements in the 
compound and supplied sometimes with hypocoristic or 
endearing terminations. Thus in Greek,- for instance, we 
find besides the compounds NtK6/Aaxos, NiKoarpaTos, and the 
like, shorter forms such as NtKc'as, Nikus, Nt/cwv, Nikci'?, Niati;?, 
NtKi;AAos, and a good man)' more. Similarly, besides such 
names as Cadzvaon, Cadfael and Cadfan in Welsh, we have 
the shorter ones suggested b}' them, Cadog and Catwg. 
Many more might be added from all the Celtic languages, 
but the foregoing will serve to show what the Aryan .system 
of names was, and how it would have taxed the ingenuity 
of the cleverest Druid to select many incident names which 
at the same time should sound Aryan of the approved 
type. Not only were the two systems different, they must 
have been incompatible, mutually destructive; and it is 
needless to say that the habit of giving children incident 
names cannot have been developed in Arj'an surroundings. 
It is the less artificial of the two, and belongs to a ruder 
race ; and no evidence could well be more conclusive as to 
the former presence in these Islands of a population of 
natives of non-Aryan origin. 

See Rhys's " Lectures on Welsh Philology," pp. 279, 388. 
- For a discussion of the whole subject of Greek proper names, see Pick's 
•' Griechische Personennamen " (Gottingen, 1S74), 



x6tn 



N 




N.B.-Areas supposed occupied by Brythonlc 
glc tribes are represented thus \\\\^ \ 
occupied by Goldellc tribes thu. ///////. »"" "> 
portions of the British Isles continuing to be f 
by the aborigines are loft blank. 



CHAPTER III. 



ROMAN BRITAIN. 



The following chapter is intended mainly to do two 
things : to elucidate the map of Britain in the first century 
of our era which faces this page, and to lead up to the 
history of Wales proper. The facts, where they are not 
new or submitted to a fresh examination, are taken from 
Rhys's "Celtic Britain," ^ checked by Mr. F. Haverfield's 
map of Roman Britain," and the succinct account of the 
Province with which his map is accompanied. 

From what has already been said it will be seen that 
Pytheas, when he visited this country in the 4th century 
before our era, is not likely to have found any Brythons 
here: the inhabitants of the south of the Island consisted 
then of the Aborigines, with Goidels as the race ruling 
over some or all of them. It is unfortunate that Pytheas's 
account of his visit is not extant ; abstracts, however, from 
his diary have come down through such channels as the 
works of Diodorus, Strabo, and Pliny. But the evidence 
which principally concerns us is concentrated in a few 
proper names, such as Albion, Belerium, Bi'itanni, Cantmm, 
Ictis, Morimanisam, and Pj-etanic Islands. Of these 
Cantium and Pretmtic must be regarded as Brythonic, 

^ Published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2nd ed. , 
London, 1884. 

' See Mr. Poole's " Historical Atlas of Modern Europe from the Decline 
of the Roman Empire" (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1896), Plate XV. 



76 THH WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

Belgic, or Gaulish, and not Goidelic. The earhest existing 
work which alkides to the south-eastern portion of Britain 
as Cantiuin is Cnesar's account of the GalHc War, and then 
follows Diodorus with his KdvTwv} The name has the 
same form in the pages of Strabo, who uses it in passages 
devoted to a criticism of the statements of Pytheas in such a 
way that it has been supposed that Pytheas had used it him- 
self On this, however, one can only surmise that Pytheas 
either employed a slightly different form of the word or 
else that ir reached him from a Br)'thonic or Belgic source 
on the Continent. The same kind of remark would apply 
to Prctanic, if it could be shown that an}^ such a term was 
known to P\'theas, for the Celtican or Goidelic form must 
be supposed to have been QijLrtanic. The form, for example, 
in which it occurs in Ptolemy's Geography is n/jeTan/c^ N^o-o? 
or n/3€TuvtKU(. N^o-ai, " Pretanic Island or Islands," the latter 
of which meant the British Isles generally, the largest of 
them being called Albion, "Albion, Britain," and the next 
in size and importance 'loucpvta, or Ivernia, " Ireland." The 
collective name has its living cognates in the old Goidelic 
Cruithni, "Picts," Cruithnech,'' Vicixsh" in Old Welsh Priten, 
later Pjydoi, Prydyn and Prydein, now Prydain- " Scotland, 
Alba, or the Pictland of the North," and Ynys Prydain, 
" Great Britain," literall)' " Prydain's or Picts' Island." Thus 
the name of the Aborigines implied b\' these vocables would 
have been in Greek orthography IIpcTavoi', with which 
eventuall)' another and an unconnected name was con- 
founded, namel)' that of the Brittani, and the confusion is 
to be detected in the tt of n/jerTuvt/cr/, npcTxavi/cut', and in the 
€ of BpfTTuvot'. The name of the Brittani was, as alread}' 
suggested, more usually and less correctl}' made in Latin 

^ See Civsar's Gallic War, v. 13, 14, 22 ; Diodorus, v. 21, 3 ; and 
Meineke's Strabo, i. 4, 3 (C. 63), iv. 3, 3 (C. r93). 

- Yox Friten see "Y Cymnirodor, " ix. 179: the other forms occur in the 
plural, meaning I'icts, in the Books of Aneiuni . nd Talies^in : see Skene, ii. 
20q. 



ROMAN BRITAIN. yy 

orthography into Bi'ttanni, until at last it was ousted by 
the name as pronounced by those people themselves, 
namely, Brittones. This last has regularly yielded the 
Welsh Brython and French Bretons, while French Bretagne 
similarly represents Brittania, not Britania or Britannia ; 
and it cannot be regarded as an accident that the Latin 
Brittani corresponds exactly to the Mediaeval Irish plural 
Bretain, genitive Bretan. In other \\'ords the form Brittani 
must have reached the Romans from the non-Brythonic 
Celts of these Islands or of the Continent. 

Let us now take the other names, (i) beginning with 
Pliny's Albion, which is treated in Greek as "AX/3tov, 
'AX/3iojv or 'AXoDtwv, genitive 'AX/8iwi/os or 'AXoutwvos.^ This 
name is unknown to the Brythonic dialects, except that 
Modern Welsh literature sometimes borrows A /dan for Scot- 
land ; but it survives in the Goidelic dialects, namely, as A /da, 
A/pa,a.nd E/pa, genitive A/ban (also Alba''-). Traces of its 
application to the whole of Great Britain'' before it came 
to be confined to the northern portion of it occur in Irish 
literature; and the fact of the Island being called Insu/a 
A/bionum in the Ora Maritima of Avienus^ makes it pro- 
bable that the name is very ancient. Albion is supposed, 
and probably rightly, to mean the White Country, in reference 
to the appearance of the cliffs of the southern coast, and at 
first it was applied presumably only to the south. There is 
no evidence that the Brythons or Belgic Gauls used the 
word, but rather that they translated it into their own 
tongue as Cantion; for that also seems to have meant the 

V Pliny's " Historia Naturalis," iv. 30, i. 

- Rhys's " Manx Phonology," p. 85. 

^ See " Cormac's Glossary," j.z'. "Mug-eime," and the instance in the Duan 
Albanach, quoted at the close of this chapter, p. 115 ; see also Stokes's " Urkel- 
tischer Sprachschatz," p. 21, where he explains the name to mean White 
Land. 

"• See the lines in question quoted and explained in Mlillenhoff's "Deutsche 
Altertuniskunde," i 91. 



78 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

White Country.^ Unlike the other name, however, Cantion 
remained confined to the south-east of the Island, so that it 
has yielded the Welsh Caint and the English Kent. 

(2) Belcriuin is given twice by Diodorus as BeXe'pioi/, 
which Ptolemy's manuscripts give as BoXe'piov, and it is 
supposed to have meant some portion of the south-western 
peninsula, including probably the Land's End. In Old 
Irish we have a word which comes very near it, namely 
the neuter noun bclrc, (Modern Irish beurla), which meant 
a language, and unqualified, perhaps, an alien or foreign 
tongue. This would explain how in Modern Irish it means 
" English "; and the inference suggested by the occurrence 
of the name Belerion is, that it became current among the 
Goidels at a time when the language of the Aborigines was 
still dominant over a certain area of the south-west of the 
Island. Perhaps, however, it was merely meant to describe 
the extreme south-west as a tongue of land. 

(3) Ictis is the name recorded by Diodorus as given to 

one of the islands at high tide to which the inhabitants of 

the south-western peninsula of Britain brought their tin for 

sale to the merchants who traded with them. The same 

name was known to Pliny, for his Insulain Mictini is 

doubtless to be corrected into Insulavi Ictiin. But his 

account of Ictis differs from that of Diodorus, although 

both are supposed to have drawn their information from 

Tim.neus, a historian who was contemporary with Pytheas. 

There seems to be no sufficient reason for identif}Mng Ictis 

with Vectis, " the Isle of Wight," or to sever it from the 

Irish name of the English Channel, namely, iMiar ti-Icht,^ 

' See .Stokes's " Uik. Sprachschatz," p. 90, and Holder's " Alt-celt. Sprach- 
schatz," s.v. Cantion, canto : compare the Welsh word can, " white." A certnin 
school of English historians pretend that Cantiinn is in Welsh j Caint, "the 
Kent," and that it meant "the open country." This interpretation comes 
from Dr. W. Owen Puglie, but where the definite article has been found 
prefixed to this proper name we have not yet discovered. Both " t/u Caint " 
and " t/ie Gwent " figure among the curiosities of Guest's " Origines Celticas." 
" Cormac's Glossary," s.v. Mug-eime. 



ROMAN BRITAIN. 79 

" the Sea of Icht, or Ictian Sea." Ictis and Ic/ii represent 
possibly a Celtic pronunciation of the same Aboriginal 
word which the Romans made into Pictus} plural Picti ; 
for if the Celts learned the word sufficiently early they would 
naturally treat it like any other word with the consonant/, 
that is to say, they would get rid of that consonant as in 
their own words. It is probably a mistake to suppose that 
in this name we have the Y^dSAn pictus , "painted," any more 
than in the name of the Pictones in Gaul. Had it been 
Latin it could hardly have been regarded as other than a 
kind of nickname, and no one would have expected the 
Aborigines of Caithness and Sutherland to give the Norse- 
men who first reached their shores a Latin nickname as 
their national designation. Rather must we suppose it the 
native name, which the Aborigines gave themselves, while 
the Celts had another name, Qiirtatii, Pretani, later Cruithni 
and Prydyn, for them in ancient Goidelic and Brythonic 
respectively.^ 

1 This may, perhaps, be regarded as confiimed by Ictium, given by Holder 
as an old name of a place now called L'Isle-Jourdaiii in the Dep. of the Vienne, 
covered by the eastern portion of the old province of Poitou. For Poitou 
represents an older Pictavi, another form of the name of the Pictonfs, and both 
claim close kinship with that of the Picts of this country. For the latter were 
not only called Picti, but also Pictones (see Stokes's "Annals of Tigernach" 
in the "Revue Celtique," xvii. 251, 253) ; and probably Pictores, which, under 
the influence of the genitive plural Pictorum, is not uncommon, is everywhere 
to be corrected into Pictones. The Paris document, published by Skene at the 
head of his collection of the Chronicles of the Picts and of the Scots, has, in 
that compilation, Pictavia and Pictaviam seven times. Skene's v is meant to 
represent the u of the manuscript ; but on scrutinising the original (Latin, 4126) 
in the Bibliotheque Nationale, we find only one instance which looks like 
Piciauia. The others we should read Picfania, Pictaniatn, with ni formed 
like m. The MS. appears to be a fourteenth century copy of an original of the 
tenth. Add to this that the Life of St. Cadroe calls the Aborigines of Ireland 
gentem Pictannorum : see Skene's " Picts and Scots," p. 108 ; also p. 137, where 
the unusual form Pictinia is given. 

- The words Cruithni and Prydyn have been regarded as derived, though 
the nasal has not been exactly accounted for, from the Irish and Welsh words for 
" form or shape," namely truth and pry d respectively, and a reference in them 
has been assumed to the forms or outlines of the beasts which the Picts are 



8o THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

(4) Moritnarusaui is said by Plin)', after Philemon, to have 
been the name of the northern ocean from the Cimbri's 
countr}' to a certain Cape Rubeas, and to have meant Dead 
Sea. The passage, somewhat carelessly given by Pliny, 
is repeated in a less ambiguous form by the later author 
Solinus, xix. 2 : — PhilemoH a Cimbris ad promunturium 
Rubeas Moriniarusam dicit vocari, hoc est Mortuiiin Mare : 
ultra Rubeas quicquid est Croniuin nominat} Scholars are 
not inclined to regard Morimarusani as a specimen of the 
language of the Cimbri, whom they regard as a Teutonic 
people, while on the other hand it admits of being explained 
exactl)' as Celtic, Mori Marusaui, which would make in 
Modern Irish Muir Marbli, Welsh Mor Marzv, "Dead 
Sea." In the Latin of both Pliny and Solinus it looks like 
an accusative feminine, but as the word jnori, Irish inuU\ 
was neuter like the Latin mare., it is probably to be treated 
as accusative neuter ; and the fact of Marusam ending 
in am shows that we have here to do with Goidelic, as 
Brythonic and Gaulish would have had on or omf and 
the Latin would have been given accordingly as Mori- 
Marusum. Pliny's authorit)' was a certain Philemon who 



believed to have had tnttooed on tlieir persons. Should this prove tenable, 
one could scarcely avoid treating Cniithiii and Prydyn as translations into 
(ioidelic and Brythonic of the word Pict regarded as the Latin //V/z/.v, " painted." 
It is needless to say that this would not help us to the meaning of Pict as a 
word of the Pictish language to which it probably belonged ; but the supposi- 
tion here suggested as to Pretanic being merely a sort of translation of the 
Latin pidits, would compel us to regard the first use of Pretanic ar, dating no 
earlier than Civsar's time and the spread of Latin in Northern Oaul. This 
would simplify the question if the chronology should make it possible, which 
looks hardly probable. 

' Pliny's version runs thus, iv. 95 : Mcrimarusavi {euin) a Ciiiihris locari, 
hoc est, Morliiitm Marc, iiide usque ad proiiiunturiiiin Rubeas, ultra deitute 
Croniuin. 'Ihis we copy from Miillenhoff's "Deutsche Alterlumskunde," 
i. 413. where the passage is discussed. 

- The predilection of Goidelic for a instead of as the thematic vowel is 
borne out by the most ancient Ogams of Britain and Ireland : thus the 
"enitive ending curre.spondiiig to Greek os (Latin /.() is always as or (/. 



ROMAN BRITAIN. 8r 

appears to have lived in the last century before our Era 
and Philemon is supposed to have been using information 
obtained by Pytheas when he visited Britain. 

With regard to these names Albion^ Beleriuin, Ictis^ and 
Mori-Marusam, it is probable that they were learnt in this 
country by Pytheas or some of the travellers who came here 
after his time. In other words, we may treat them for what 
they are worth as evidence of the occupation of the southern 
portions of Britain by a Celtican or Goidelic people at a 
time before the Brythons had obtained a footing on its 
shores. We have dwelt on these names at this point as 
another view is sometimes put forward, that everything 
Goidelic in Britain is to be traced to invasions from Ireland, 
and to a time subsequent to the second century of our era, 
especially the later years of the Roman occupation and 
those following the withdrawal of the Roman legions from 
the Island.^ That men from Ireland invaded Britain at 
various points and at various times, and, further, that some 
of them settled here, is not to be disputed. Take, for 
instance, the case of the Dalriad Scots, who crossed from 
Ireland to Argyle in the fifth century, or that of the Deisi 
in the south-west of Wales at a still earlier date. This, 
however, proves in no wise that there was not previously 
a Goidelic population in the west of the Island; it rather 
favours the contrary supposition, for a native Goidelic 
population might well be credited with having appealed 
to men of their own race and language in Ireland for aid 
in their struggles with Brythonic tribes, and the response 
to such an appeal may have served as the beginning of a 
series of descents on the coasts of Wales and of the south 
of England. To such invasions we may possibly have to 

' This view has been recently advocated by Professor Meyer in the " Trans- 
actions of the Hon. Society of Cymmrodorion "' (64 Chancery Lane, London, 
1897), 1895-6, pp. 55-86, where a number of facts illustrating the early 
intercourse between Wales and Ireland have been brought together in a very 
interesting fashion. 

W.P. G 



82 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

ascribe the destruction of such towns as Isca Sikirum or 
Caerleon and Venta Silurum or Caer Went in Monmouth- 
shire, and perhaps of Calleva or Silchester in Hampshire, 
where an Ogam inscription' testifying to the presence of a 
Goidel was discovered a short time ago. Nay, it is con- 
ceivable that Vortigern, whose name outside the Hengist 
story is found to have been more at home in Ireland and 
Brittany than in Wales, represented such an invasion, with 
its influence reaching as far as Kent. 

The advocates of the view to which we have referred 
appear to be at one with us as to the existence of a con- 
siderable Goidelic population in the west of Britain from 
the second century onwards, and also as to the influence of 
that Goidelic element on the subsequent histor}- of this 
Island, especially that portion of it which constitutes the 
Principality of Wales. The difference of , view attaches to 
the previous question, whence came the Goidelic element 
admitted to have been present here? Our hypothesis regards 
it as for the most part resident and as partly drawn from 
Ireland, while the other derives it wholly from Ireland. 
The difficulty which we feel in estimating the respective 
merits of these hypotheses is enhanced by our lack of data 
to enable us to judge of the attitude of the advocates of 
the hypothesis of the exclusive Irish origin with regard to 
the question of the Aboriginal population. Nor can we 
hope to understand their position till the}' indicate how 
they suppose the Goidels of Ireland to have reached that 
country, also where and when the}' appro.ximatel}' think 
Goidelic nationality and Goidelic speech to have assumed 
their individuality. For our own part, we have already 
sufficiently sketched our conjectures as to the Aboriginal 
population ; and we have also indicated our conviction that 

' See in the Archa'ologia, vol. Viv., a paper by Mr. G. E. Fox and Mr.W. H. 
St. John Hope, entitled " Excavations on the Site of the Koman City at 
Sikliester. Hants," in 1893, pp. 35-9. 



ROMAN BRITAIN. 83 

Goidels and Brythons differed in speech before they left the 
Continent. We might probably add religion : for we under- 
stand Caesar (vi. 13) to represent Druidism as being on the 
wane in Gaul, and as having originated in Britain, whither 
those who wished to study it thoroughly had to resort. But 
as there is no convincing evidence to identify it with any 
Brythonic tribe in this country, while there is evidence of 
its prevalence among the Goidels of M6n in the time of 
Agricola, and of its surviving in Ireland in that of Patrick, 
and in the Pictland of the north in that of Columba, we 
infer that it was a system evolved by the Continental 
Goidels, or rather accepted by them from the Aborigines. 
When, however, the Goidels of Gaul were conquered by the 
Galatic Celts, including the Belgic peoples, Druidism may 
well have found it impossible to hold its own for any great 
length of time, though it may have continued to flourish in 
remote corners of Britain, which we take to be the real 
meaning of the supposition that Britain was its native 
country.^ 

We now come to the question how the Goidels reached 
Ireland — that is to say, was it direct from the Continent or 
across Britain .-' In answer to this, we should say that the 
first Celts to land in Ireland embarked probably on the 
western shores of Britain ; in other words, they belonged to 
a race which had conquered southern fJritain from sea to 
sea. In early ages the voyage from the nearest ports of 
the Continent to Ireland must have been a formidable 
undertaking ; but by the time, let us say, of Caesar, it was 
probably well within the capacity of the mariners of the 
Veneti and of the other tribes belonging to the Armoric 
League. That in one instance at least this did take place 

' Since this was written a most suggestive volume of "'Nos Origines" has 
been published : it is the work of the veteran archaeologist, M. Bertrand, and 
bears the title of "La Religion des Gaulois, les Druides et le Druidisme" (Paris, 

Leroux, 1897), pp. ix 436, and numerous illustrations. 

G 2 



84 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

the following neglected indication is worthy of note : in 
the extreme north-west of Gaul — that is to say, on the 
westernmost peninsula of Brittany — there was in Pytheas's 
time a people called by him 'fio-riaioi, " Ostia^i." Another 
early form of their name appears to have been 'Do-rtWes ; 
but later they were best known as 'Oo-iV/xtoi, the Osismi 
whom Casar mentions among the allies of the Veneti. 
Now a name which has all the appearance of being closely 
connected with that of the Ostiaei or Ostiones is given 
by Ptolemy to a people in the south of Ireland — namely, the 
Oio-S/ai,^ " Usdiai," whose name in its turn is probabl}- to 
be identified with that of Ossor}'. In Irish this latter is 
written Osraig/ie, and, roughly speaking, it means the county 
of Kilkenny ; but the Ossorians formerly claimed against 
Munster the whole of the country from the Suir to the 
Barrow, and from the mountains called Slieve Bloom in 
Queen's County to the Meeting of the Three Waters near 
Waterford." Moreover, as Ptolemy represents the Usdiae as 
reaching the coast, we should probably add to their territor)- 
the greater part of the County Waterford, on which the 
Deisi seized in the third century, together with the western 
portion of the Ossorians' country, north of the Suir, of 
which they got possession later. '^ The similarity of the 
names Usdiae and Ostiaei naturall)' leads one to suppose 
that some of the Ostiaei or Osismi sailed from Brittany 
past the Land's End to the coast between Youghai and 
W^aterford Harbour, and then graduall}' pushed inland, 

' OvaUai. is considered tlie best reading, and it has been adopted in the text 
of Ptoleniv, by C. MuUer, in the Firmin Didot edition of 1883 ; and as to the 
name 'no-Ttaioj see Mullenhofl's " Deutsche Altertumskunde,"' i. 373-5. If the 
view suggested above should prove correct, one may propose that instead of 
correcting the ovs Ttjj.iovs of the MSS. of Strabo into oiis 'naTi/niovs, as Miillen- 
hoff does, it should rather be into oiis OixTrifiiovs. 

■ See O'Donovan's "Book of Rights," pp. 17, iS. 

^ /ill/, pp. 49, 50 ; but for the whole story of the Deisi see the " Book of 
the Dun Cow," fo. 53, 54, and O'Curry's " Manners and Customs of the Ancient 
Iriih," ii. 205-8. 



ROMAN BRITAIN. 85 

taking possession of some of the best land in Ireland. 
Possibly this took place as late as Caesar's Gallic War, and 
one's thoughts are naturally directed to the time when the 
Osismi found their powerful allies, the Veneti, being 
crushed by him on land and sea. The archaeological dis- 
coveries of the future may perhaps supply evidence where 
we have at present only conjecture. 

The south-east of Ireland seems also to have been occu- 
pied, at least in part, by settlers coming direct from the 
Continent. For next to the Usdiae come, according to 
Ptolemy, a certain tribe of Brigantes, occupying the coast as 
far as Carnsore Point, and above them he places a people 
whom he calls the Coriondi or Coriondse, who probably 
occupied a district to which the waters of Wexford Har- 
bour and the River Slaney gave ready access. Then come 
the Manapii, with their town called Manapia, and situated 
somewhere near the mouth of a river called Modonnus, which 
may probably have been the Avonmore, at whose mouth 
stands the town of Arklow, called in Med. Irish Inber 
Mor, "the great River-mouth." Beyond the Manapii come 
the Cauci, occupying probably the north of the present 
County Wicklow, and extending, perhaps, towards the 
mouth of the Lififey. Of these four tribes, the Manapii 
point to the Menapii on the Lower Rhine as their mother 
state, and as to the Cauci their name reminds one of that of 
the Teutonic people of the Chauchi, Chauci, or Cauchi, but 
our Cauci are more likely to have been Celts — possibly Celts 
who had been under the Teutonic rule of the Chauci.^ The 



' In this connection it is worth while mentioning that there seems to have been 
a very ancient trade in amber between Britain and the coast, with its islands, 
between the moutli of the Rhine and that of the Elbe. Some of the amber 
found in the ancient burials south of the Thames seems to have been of that 
origin ; so one infers that there M'as active navigation between the country of 
the Chauci and the British Isles. On this amber question see Elton's '• Origins 
of English History," pp. 65-6. Holder cites Kiepert as believing the Cauci 
connected with the Lower Rhine. 



86 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

Brigantes of Ireland were very probably of the same origin 
as the Brigantes of Britain ; but wc have no evidence to 
help us to fix on their home on the Continent. We should, 
perhaps, not be greatly mistaken in looking for it not far 
from the territor)' of the Menapii ; for instance, in the country 
at the mouth of the Rhine known as Insula Batavofuin. 
The Batavi and Caninefates whom we find in possession of 
it in the first century are believed to have been Teutonic 
peoples ; but that the country had been formerly inhabited 
by Celts is proved by Lugudununi {Batavoruin), now Leyden, 
which is as Celtic a name as that of the other Lugudunums^ 
in different parts of Gaul. Another Batavian town was 
known as Batavodurum, which, in point of name, was at 
least in part Celtic, and situated in the neighbourhood of 
N\'meguen, whilst a little higher up the Rhine seems to 
have been a place called Burginatium, which looks like a 
sort of Teutonic translation of some such a Celtic name 
as Brigantio, borne by a place once perhaps inhabited by 
the Brigantes of whom we are in quest. 

Now some, if not all, of the four tribes of this group 
were Br}'thonic or Belgic rather than Goidelic ; but we have 
no means of tracing the influence of their language on the 
Goidelic which became the language of Ireland. They are 
also remarkable for the small scale of their territory : it 
cannot have extended much beyond the limits of the 
present counties of Wexford and Wicklow, and its area was 
probably far from covering them, as it presumably con- 
sisted of settlements surrounded by the Aboriginal popu- 
lation — that is, in case that part of the countr}- had not 
alread)' been Goidelicised. In an)' case the territory of 
these Leinster tribes and that of the Usdi;e had been carved 
probabl}' in the first instance out of that of the Iverni, 
who ma}' accordingl}' be represented as an Aboriginal 

' For a list of these see Holder's "• Alt-celtischer Spraclischatz," s.v. ; see also 
liis BataTodnroit and Bur^iiiatio. 



ROMAN BRITAIN. 87 

population previously extending from the south-west of 
the Island to the mouth of the Liffey or the Boyne. This 
would help to explain why Munster used formerly to claim 
Ossory, which we have supposed to represent the Usdiae, 
and why the Iverni gave their name to the whole Island — 
that is to say, Ivernia, Latinised Hibernia ; and similarly 
in the case of the 'loucpvi/cos 'O/ceavos, which still retains its 
name of the " Irish Sea." When these names came into 
vogue the Iverni must have been predominant in Ireland. 
It is probably from the northern half of the Island that 
we have the name Scotti, under which the first western 
invaders appear in the history of Roman Britain in the 
fourth century. Before leaving Ireland we wish to men- 
tion two or three ^ of the names identified in Ptolemy's 
Geography. Foremost comes that of the people whom he 
calls Ovo-AowTtoi or OvoKovvnoi^- for the manuscripts differ. 
His figures admit of our locating them around Armagh, 
near which is the remarkable pre-historic fortress of Emain 
Macha, now known as the Navan Fort, and we detect their 
name in the Irish Ulaid, ULtu'^ "the Ultonians, Ulster," which 

1 We take them from an excellent paper on Ptolemy's Map of Ireland, 
by Mr. G. H. Orpen, in the " Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of 
Ireland," 1894, pp. 1 15-128, with map. 

- The editor of the Firmin Didot edition gives the preference to this reading, 
for the incredible reason, that the so-called Richard of Cirencester has Voluntii 
or Volantii in Britain. To make OvoKovvnoi fit as well as OvffXovvrioi we 
should have perhaps to spell it OvKovrioi ; but OvffXovvrioi and the variant 
Ov<T\6vTioi, which also occurs, would do ; however, the declension of the word 
in Irish suggests -roi rather than -rioi. 

■* This was the accusative plural, and the dative was Ultaib, contracted, no 
doubt, from Ulatu and Ulaiaib respectively — no singular occurs : so the 
genitive should have been Ulat and the nominative Ulait, but from Ultn and 
Ultaib were, by false analogy probably, inferred Ulad and Ulaid. Compare 
such words as ivgnaih or iiigndd, " wonderful, a wonder," pi. inganta, chad, 
■'a suffering or passion,'' ac. plural cesfii, and ??iolad, "' praise," pi. moita and 
inoltha. The Irish Llaid occurs in Welsh as Wleth : see the Book of Taliessin, 
poem xiv. (Skene, i. 276, ii. 154), where Penren Wleth seems to mean some 
headland called after the Ultonians or their country. The reduction of tif, 
nc to tt {i), cc {c) is universal in Goidelic, and no instance in point from a 
previous stage has yet been discovered. Brigantes, for example, was Brythonic, 



88 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

fits so well that there can be no serious doubt as to their 
identity^ The name of Ptolemy's 'EpStvoi survives in that 
of Lough Ej'ne and of the ancient tribe of the Ernai 
associated by Irish legend with that water. His BououtVSa 
was undoubtedly the Boyne, and his Btpyos the Barrow, not 
to mention his Aa/Sp^jva, which is probably to be corrected 
into SaySpwva, and to be identified with Sabrann} an old name 
of the river Lee, on the banks of which, somewhere about 
the position of Cork, stood Ivernis, which may be supposed 
to have been the capital of the Iverni in Ptolemy's time. 

We now at length come back to Britain and the disposi- 
tion of its populations under the Romans. Here we have 
to deal first with the question, whom the Romans had to 
contend with when they invaded the island. Caesar's 
passage already mentioned (p. 5) as to the powerful Gaul 
Diviciacos who ruled over Britain supplies a clue to the 
answer. The statement of the Remi to Cxsar referred to 
a time which men then still alive remembered, and, since 
no hint as to a revolution is vouched, the probability is 
that the empire of Diviciacos in this country subsisted 

and Uoluntii comes from a Pictisli origin doubtless rather than a Celtic one. 
Compare Pictish Uoi-ct, -norrann and ■iiorr)i (Pro. of Antiq. Scot, xxxij. 347, 
349) 372)- Oil the other hand, not only Brythonic but also Pictish shows no 
aversion to iit : take, for instance, the names of the thirty Pictish kings 
mentioned in the Pictish Chronicle as ruling over Erin and Britain 
(Skene's " Picts and Scots," pp. 5-8); the list opens with Brute Pant, 
followed by Brute Urpant, and contains others called Brude Gant and Brude 
Urgant, Brude Cint and Brude Uirint, also such later names as Entifidich 
and Custaiitiii ( = Constanthnis). .Similarly Ptolemy places a tribe called 
Decanfic in the northern reach of the Pictish country, while we have the 
Dccanti of the Arx Deaintonim of the Annales Cambria, later Degaii/nvy or 
Degaiiwy, near Llandudno, in North Wales : tiie Goidelic equivalent is found 
in the personal name which occurs in the genitive variously as DECCE'J /, 
DEC NET/, and in Ogam Dccceddas, Deccddo, &c. 

' This name is proi^ably non-Celtic, and evidently identical witii that of the 
Severn, in Welsh Hafrcii., from an earlier Sa/iriiia, which our classical scholars, 
so particular as to vowel quantity, are pleased to make into .Sabrina. Compare 
Irish salami, Welsh hakii, "salt," and Irish craiin, Welsh pren, "a tree, 
timber. " 



ROMAN BRITAIN. 89 

under his successors in Caesar's time. But Diviciacos's 
people were the Suessiones and the Remi ; so we should 
expect to find both of them represented in Britain, though 
their names have not been detected. Now we know from 
a couple of ancient inscriptions^ that a favourite god of the 
Remi was Camulos, whose name is the etymological equiva- 
lent of the German word hivujiel^ " heaven," and may be 
regarded as a synonym or translation doubtless of the 
god's common Aryan name, which is represented by Zews 
in Greek, Jovis in Latin, and Dyaus in Sanskrit. This was 
the supreme god of the ancient Aryans, and the Celts 
made him their god of war ; so some of them when they 
settled in Britain called one of their fortresses Cainulodunon, 
" the town of Camulos." This was near Colchester, in the 
country of the Trinovantes, in whom we are accordingly 
prepared to find the Remi we are seeking. The next 
neighbours of the Trinovantes were the Catuvellauni, in 
whom we probably have our insular Suessiones. At any 
rate, the name of the Catuvellauni was also that which, 
shortened into Catelauni or Catalauni, eventually became 
Chaalons and Chalons, the name of a well-known town 
on the Marne, in a district usually assigned to the Remi. 
But the fact is that the Remi and Suessiones formed a sort 
of twin state, the boundary between whose lands we have 
no data . to enable us to draw. According to Caesar's 
information, the Remi and the Suessiones regarded one 
another as kinsmen : they lived under the same laws and 
obeyed the same magistrates. But the Remi cultivated 
the friendship of Caesar, while the Suessiones took part in 
various efforts made by the Gauls to throw off the Roman 
yoke ; and when those efforts failed, the Remi came forward 
to intercede for the Suessiones and save them from ruin.- 

^ See the Berlin " Corpus Inscrip. Latinorum," vi. No. 46, and Hiibner's 
" Exempla. Script. Epigraphicse, No. 198." 
- Ca-bar, ii. 3, 12. 



90 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

A somewhat similarl}- close relationship appears to have 
existed between their representatives in Britain — that is, if 
we are right in supposing these to have been the Trino- 
vantes and the Catuvellauni respectively. Thus the 
Catuvellauni, under the lead of their chief Cassivellaunos, 
strenuously opposed Caesar's second invasion, while the 
Trinovantes hastened to seek his protection, complaining 
that Cassivellaunos had slain their king, whose son fled to 
Csesar on the Continent. The feud between these kindred 
peoples is perhaps to be detected also in the case of a 
certain prince named Dubnovellaunos, who in vain sought 
the aid of Augustus : at any rate, some of his coins seem 
to identify him with the country of the Trinovantes.^ 

In any case the Catuvellauni and the Trinovantes 
between them may be regarded as the upholders of the 
empire of Diviciacos, and for aught we know Cassivellaunos 
may have been lineally descended from Diviciacos. The 
power and influence of the Catuvellauni is sufficiently 
proved by the fact of their chief Cassivellaunos being 
entrusted with the conduct of the war against Ca;sar; and 
Dion Cassius, speaking of the campaign of Aulus Plautius in 
43, represents the Catuvellauni as ruling over a part or the 
whole of the people of the Dobunni on the Severn in 
Gloucestershire. On the other hand, the coins of Cuno- 
belinos their king, who died before that year, show him 
occupying Camulodunon as his headquarters in the lifetime 
of his father Tasciovant,- who resided at Verlamion, now 

' See Rhys's " Celtic Britain," pp. 27, 294. 

- This name has a variety of forms on the coins : tlie nominative occurs as 
Tasciovaiiits, Tasciovanius, and Tasciovans, and the genitive as Tasciovaiti, 
Tasiiioz'anii, Tasciovantis, besides such abbreviations as Tasciov, TasctaT, 
7\isiio, Tascia, Taxcia, and Taxci ; but there must have also been some such a 
form as Tacsivant-, for we find it represented in Welsh pedigrees by a form which 
must have been Techuant, written Tehvant, which is the explanation ol the form 
Teuhant in the Nennian genealogies: see " Y Cymmrodor,"' ix. 174, 176, 
also Tciiitaiit for lechniant, with m {o\ v (p. 174): it is written Tecwaiit in 
Jesus College MS. 20, I/iid. viij. 84, and it is from Tchvaiit, by the easy 



ROMAN BRITAIN. 91 

Old Verulam, near St. Albans. Thus at the time when the 
Claudian invasion took place the people of the Catuvellauni 
held sway from the North Sea to the mouth of the Severn. 
But to return to Tasciovant, the number of his coins seems 
to indicate that he had a long reign, terminating only in 
the earlier years of the Christian Era. Some of his coins 
suggest that his rule extended to Calleva of the Atrebates — 
that is to say, Silchester, in the north of Hampshire. He 
iiad two sons also whose coins are extant, namely, Cunobe- 
linos already mentioned, and Epaticcos, whose coins induce 
one to believe that he held sway south of the Thames, in 
what is now Surrey.^ But the tribes south of the Thames 
appear to have for some time retained a certain independ- 
ence under three princes named Tincommios, Epillos, and 
Verica, each of whom styles himself on his coins " Son 
of Commios." Their father may have been Commios the 
Atrebat, who attempted to act as Caesar's emissary in 
Britain, and who afterwards played the part of mediator 
when Cassivellaunos sued for peace. The subsequent career 
of this Commios in Gaul was a very chequered one. He 
joined with his countrymen in various attempts to free 
themselves from the yoke of Rome, and after narrowly 
escaping Roman treachery he withdrew to Britain. But 
whether Tincommios and his brothers were the sons of this 
Commios or not, there is evidence that Tincommios, who 
possibly ruled over the Regni, pursued a Romanising policy ; 

misreading of h into ti, that Geoffrey's Teiiuantius (iii. 20) arose. It is 
remarkable that we have in the pedigree of Rhun, son of Nwython (Cym- 
mrodor, ix. 176) the correct succession map. Caratazic. map. Cinbelin. 
map. Teitkant, for Jilii Carataci filit Ciinobelini filii Taxivauti ; but tliis 
information which one obtains partly from the coins, above all the name of 
Tasciovant, is not to be got from any known author, whether Roman or 
Greek.' So we have here probably traces of a Welsh pedigree representing a 
genuine tradition reaching back beyond the beginning of the Christian era. 

1 A coin with the letters CARA or CARAT is probably to be referred to 
Caratacos, the more famous brother : see Evans's " Coins of the Ancient Britons," 
Supplement (London, 1890), p. 553, and Plate XX. 8. 



92 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

for Augustus having become emperor and st}'led him- 
self on a coin Augustus Divi Filius, it was not long 
before Tincommios had coins of his own inscribed in 
Augustus's Latin formula : Tiuc\oniiinus^ Coui[u/i] F\^ilius\ 
A passage in Tacitus's Agricola, c. 14, is here in point. 
He says that certain cities were given to a certain king 
Cogidumnos, according to the received policy of Rome 
when she wanted tools for the enslaving of other nations, 
and he adds that Cogidumnos continued faithful to the 
Romans even within the historian's own time. An inscrip- 
tion, dating from the time of Claudius or Vespasian and 
found at Chichester, helps to localise Cogidumnos there.^ 
Thus we seem to have glimp.ses of a Romanising policy 
pursued among the kings of the Regni from the time of 
Tincommios to that of Tacitus. It originated probably 
in fear and jealousy of the power of the Catuvellauni, and 
in any case that is the key to the history of the Roman 
conquest in 43, for the legions seem to have met with no 
serious resistance till they neared the Thames. The resist- 
ance then offered was organised by the Catuvellauni, while 
the Eceni in their rear, that is to say, in the district between 
the Trinovantes and the Wash, do not seem to have fought 
at all, for Tacitus- represents them as having entered into 
alliance with Rome of their own free will. This makes it 
appear all the more probable that we have the Eceni in 
the Cenimagni of a previous age, who head Caesar's short 
list of tribes suing for peace. The names of the others 
were Segontiaci, Ancalites, Bibroci and Cassi, who were all 
probabl}' inhabitants of the southern side of the Thames, 
and ma)' have been forced or frightened into submission ; but 
it is hard to believe this of a warlike people like the Eceni, 
located as they were be}'ond the Trinovantes and the 

' See the Berlin "Corpus Iiiscr. Lat. "' vii. No. il ; also Holder, s.71. 
" Cogidubnus. ' 

- See tile AiiuaLs, xiv. ^I. 



ROMAN BRITAIN. 93 

Catuvellauni. One is left to conclude that they, in case 
we are to identify them with the Cenimagni, only followed 
the example of the Trinovantes out of fear or jealousy of 
the aggressive policy of the Catuvellauni. How far north- 
wards the power of the Catuvellauni extended it is 
impossible to say, but it may have reached Vriconion, or 
Wroxeter, on the Severn, near Shrewsbury, and probably 
it took in the Coritavi or Coritani, whose country lay 
between the Trent and the North Sea, and contained the 
towns of Lindon, now Lincoln, and Rata, now Leicester. 
It is significant as to the power of the Catuvellauni that 
Suetonius (Caligula, 44) calls their king Cunobelinos, who 
died before the Claudian conquest, Britannoi'nm Rex, 
" King of the Brythons." 

Some further light is to be obtained on the disposition 
of these and neighbouring tribes from the history of the 
conquest of the south of Britain. According to Dion Cassius 
a prince named Bericos, having been driven into exile by 
troubles at home, sought for help from the Emperor 
Claudius, who then made up his mind to conquer Britain. 
Aulus Plautius was appointed leader of the expedition, and . 
the war was prosecuted with vigour for the first ten years ; 
and Dion Cassius tells us that Aulus Plautius conquered two 
of Cunobelinos's sons, first Caratacos, and then his brother 
Togodumnos, who had probably succeeded his father as 
king. In the course of the war the Roman general's 
lieutenant, Vespasian, afterwards emperor, appears to have 
greatly distinguished himself, having, as it is said b}' 
Suetonius (Vespasian, 4), reduced two of the most powerful 
tribes in the island, together with more than twenty towns and 
the Isle of Wight. We can only surmise that his operations 
were conducted chiefly against the Belgai and Dumnonii, 
the latter of whom were probably Goidels. The Romans, 
at any rate, appear to have lost little time in making their 
way to the Mendip Hills, where they had lead mines 



94 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

worked. In the year 50 the command was taken by 
Ostorius Scapula, and he proceeded to deal with the natives 
with a stronsj; hand. He took measures to hold in check all 
the tribes living on his side of the Severn and the Trent ;^ 
and possibly it was then the Roman tcjwn of Uriconium came 
into existence, marking the limit reached by the province 
as well, perhaps, as that of the influence of the Catuvellauni. 
But the determined attitude of Ostorius would seem to 
have moved various widel)' severed tribes to take a .sort of 
concerted action against him. The first to rebel were 
the Eceni ; and after humbling the ICceni he marched to 
the coast of the other sea, namel}', to the country- of the 
Deceangli, whose name survives in that of the deaner}- of 
Tegeingl, in Flintshire. The attraction of that district was 
its mineral wealth, and it is the inscription on some pigs of 
lead from there, now in the Grosvenor Museum at Chester, 
that enables us approximately to fix the locality.- From the 
Deceangli, the general turned back to quell troubles caused 
by the Brigantes, who formed the dominant people in what 
is now the North of England. We next read of him 
establishing a strong colony of veterans at Camulodunon 
and undertaking to subdue the Silures, who occupied the 
eastern half of the region between Cardigan Ba}' and the 
Severn. The Silures were a warlike race, and the}' were at 
this time led by Caratacos, one of the sons of Cunobelinos. 
Caratacos had resisted the Romans from the beginning, 
which meant some nine }'ears of experience in war against 
them. When his own people, the Catuvellauni, succumbed, 
he' appears to have sought refuge among the Silures, to 

' See Tacilus's AnnaLs, xii. 31, where the passay^e in point has been 
emendated as follows by Mr. Henry Bradley : Citnctosqiie c/s Trisaniomim et 
Sabrinam fliivios coliibere pa?-at. See the "Academy," April 28, 1883, p. 296. 
Trisantona, which was probably tlie early form of the name of the Trent, 
analyses itself into Tris-a}ilo>ia, and recalls Rhi-annou (for Rig-auton-), on 
which see the " Academy," Aug. 15, 1896, p. 1 1 5. 

- See tlie ■ Acatlcmy, " Oct. ji, 1891, p. 390 ; see aKo pp. 412, 437. 



ROMAN BRITAIN. 95 

whom he must have been well known for his opposition to 
the Romans, not to mention that the portion of his father's 
dominion entrusted to him may have been the western one 
bordering on the country of the Silures. However, he 
shifted the war into the country of the Ordovices, who were 
probably of the same Brythonic race as his own people, 
while the Silures are more likely to have been Goidels. 
The final battle was fought, as we gather, in the neighbour- 
hood of the Breidin^ Hills, between Welshpool and the 
English border. The legions prevailed, and Caratacos fled 
to the Brigantes, whose Queen Cartismandua gave him up 
to the Romans to adorn a triumph in the streets of Rome ; 
but the Silures continued unsubdued. 

In the year 58, Nero sent here Suetonius Paulinus, who 
led his troops in 62 to Anglesey, and Tacitus's account of 
the battle which they fought there is remarkable for the 
Druids that figure in it. While Suetonius was reducing Mona 
and cutting down her sacred groves, Boudicca, queen of the 
Eceni, widow of the king whose name is given as Prasutagus, 
headed a determined revolt, which resulted in a terrible 
slaughter of the Roman colony at Camulodunon. In time, 
Suetonius supervened, and was able to avenge the Roman 
losses by inflicting others on a still larger scale. Nothing 
worthy of note seems to have occurred till Vespasian 
became emperor in 69 ; one of his generals effected the 
reduction of the Brigantes in the years 69 and 70. The 
Silures were also at last conquered, and Julius Agricola, 
who was sent here in 78, quickly crushed the Ordovices 
and led his troops as far as Anglesey. His subsequent 
achievements in war took place mostly in the north of 
the island, where he is supposed to have drawn a line 

' This word put back into its early form woulrl proljably make Bragidiition or 
Bragodunoii, meaning possibly the " Hill-fort." Dygen Freidin was the name 
of a stream in the same neighbourhood : see Skene's •• Four Ancient Books of 
Wales," ii. 277, and the " Myvyrian /Vrch.,' i. 193. 



96 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

of fortifications from the Clyde to the Forth. One 
of his great victories was won at a place called Mons 
Granpius or Graupius, over tribes who fought from war 
chariots ; and on his way back he took hostages from a 
people called by the otherwise unknown name of Boresti, 
located somewhere between the Tay and the Forth. The 
fleet also co-operated with the land forces, and after passing 
a winter at a certain Partus Truccidensis or Tncfulejists, it 
performed the circumnavigation of Britain. Agricola was 
recalled in 85 or 86, but had he been allowed to go on he 
would probably have conquered Ireland : he had calculated 
the cost, and he had an exiled chief ready to lead the 
way. He was not only a great general, but also an astute 
statesman, who conciliated the conquered and encouraged 
them to adopt Roman institutions and acquire the Latin 
language. 

The Emperor Hadrian, who came here in 120, appears 
to have put down an insurrection, and he is represented 
building a wall from the Sol way to the T)'ne. In 139, his 
successor, Antoninus Pius, sent his general Lollius Urbicus 
here, and he reduced the Brigantes dwelling beyond 
Hadrian's Wall, and constructed in 143 a turf wall across 
the country from the Clyde to the Forth. The reason given 
for the war on the Brigantes was, that the latter had begun 
to invade the territory of certain Roman subjects described 
by Pausanias, the only writer who alludes to them, as 
Tj Tevovvia Motpu, " the Division or Cohort called Genunia," 
a thoroughly non-Brythonic designation, which recalls 
Adamnan's Ct'^wrt GV/^tj, and such tribal names ^■^Ddl-Riado 
and Ddl-Cais, the division of Riada and Cas respectively.^ 
The Genunians probably occupied some part of Galloway, 

' See Reeves's Adamnan's •• Life of St. Coluniba," i. 33 (p. 62), p. 92, note. 
One is strongly tempted to identify the terms Ttvovvia V\o7pa and Geona Cohors : 
all that is necessary is to suppose the latter written GTotiiC, that is Geuotne 
instead of Geona. But what would such an identification mean geographically 
and historically? 



ROMAN -BRITAIN. 97 

possibly that assigned by Ptolemy to a people whom he 
called Selgovae, a name which meant hunters : they were 
probably a tribe of the Aboriginal Picts, more or less 
Goidelicised, and depending on the Romans for protection 
against the aggressiveness of the Brigantic Brythons. In 
162 there were troubles again in the north, and under 
Commodus they became still more serious. The fortresses 
beyond Hadrian's Wall, and that Wall itself, fell into the 
hands of the northern enemy, who spread devastation in 
the province ; it was repelled in 182. In the struggle for 
the purple of empire, following the death of Commodus, 
Albinus, who was in command of the forces in Britain, 
crossed to the Continent, where he met with his death. He 
had, in 197, succeeded in making terms with the tribes 
beyond Hadrian's Wall ; but his successor found himself 
unable to keep them quiet, so he purchased peace from 
them at a great price. 

It was not long, however, before they attacked the 
province with such determination, that the Emperor Severus 
resolved to make a great expedition in the north in 
208. Severus penetrated, it has been supposed, as far as 
the Moray Firth, and he is credited with having built 
or rebuilt a wall from the Clyde to the Forth ; in any 
case, as Britain figures little in history from the time of 
Severus's death in 21 1 to the reign of Carausius, his expedi- 
tion must be pronounced very effective. It is to be noticed 
that in the time of Severus one finds the populations of the 
north grouped under the two names of Caledonii and 
Maeatai. By the former, we are to understand the Cale- 
donians, or native Picts of the Highlands, while the latter 
name appears to have comprised a mixed people of Picts 
and Celts occupying approximately the country assigned 
by Ptolemy to the northern portion of the Dumnonii, 
together with the tribes of the Lowlands nearest to them. 
Dion Cassius (Ixxvi. 12) locates the Macarai close to the Wall 

W.P. H 



98 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

which divided the island in two. If, as might be expected 
in his time, he meant Hadrian's Wall, the Ma.'ata; must be 
supposed to have included the Brigantes dwelling beyond 
that Wall and the tribes overshadowed by them, such as 
were probably the Votadini,^ who occupied the coast from 
the southern Wall to the Firth of Forth. But we find it 
hard to accept this, and would prefer supposing that Dion 
was loosely following some previous author who meant the 
northern Wall. Otherwise one gets into difficulties as 
regards the subsequent history of the tribes involved, and 
runs counter to the later traces of the home of the Ma^ata^; 
for their name is found to survive beyond the more 
northern Wall, to wit, in Dun-Myat, " the fortress of the 
MceaicE or Miati" as the name is once given by Adamnan.- 
Dunmyat is now the name of one of the westernmost points 
of the Ochil Hills, over against Stirling, on the other side 
of the Forth. Another fixed point of the same kind offers 
itself in Maya Insula, now well known as the Isle of ]\Iay, off 
the north-east coast of Fife. So it may be supposed that 
the country of the Mxatae comprised at least most of the 
tract covered by Stirlingshire and the whole of the Low- 
lands as far as the Tay, whatever may be said as to the 
region beyond that river. -^ 

' The name of these people is given in most of the manuscripts of rtolemy 
as 'nraSrivoi or 'nraSivoi, but the Welsh form, according to Nennius, was 
Gnotortiii, which should now be Godoctin : and it follows that the ancient form 
should have been more nearly OvoTaSr)vol or OuoTaSivoi, perhaps better still 
OvoToStvoi. Their country embraced the district around North Berwick, and 
the headland over against Fife is alluded to in Irish literature (Skene's " Picts and 
Scots," p. 57) as the promontory of Fothudan, which agrees, except in its 
termination, with the Guotodin of Nennius. We have a simpler form of the 
same origin in the Irish personal name Fot/iad, and in the leading element 
of the genitive Voteporigis, Votcrorigas, on the bilingual stone of Castetl Dwyran. 
Carmarthenshire. See the "Arch. Cambrensis,"" 1895, pp. 303-13; 1896, 
pp. 107-10, 138. 

- See Reeves's Adamnan, i. 9 (p. 36) ; also i. 8 (p. 33), where the spelling 
is Jiliathi. 

•* See Skene's "Picts and Scots,'' pp. clxi. 423-4. 



ROMAN BRITAIN. 99 

Carausius seized the reins of government in Britain in 
287, and he is described as of the most plebeian descent, 
as a Menapian citizen, and as an alumnus of Batavia. 
His history was that of a man who had once worked for 
wages as a mariner, and by degrees made his way up to 
the very responsible position of commanding the Roman 
fleet charged to keep the sea opposite the Belgic and 
Armoric coasts clear of the Saxons and Franks who 
infested it ; among other distinctions he had earned 
a great reputation in the war against the Bagaudae in 
Gaul. The headquarters of his fleet were at Bononia or 
Boulogne, and he did his work with great success, but 
at length he fell under the suspicion of conniving at the 
doings of the pirates and of receiving a share of the 
plunder. This resulted at last in an order that he 
should be put to death, whereupon Carausius declared 
himself Caesar, and made Britain for a time independent 
of Rome, and not a little prosperous. He died in 294, 
a.ssassinated by a certain Allectus, who is represented 
as one of his associates, and Allectus enjoyed power till 
he was slain in a battle fought in 296 with the army 
of Constantius Chlorus, who then re-united Britain to the 
Roman Empire.^ 

It will help one to understand the career of Carausius, 
if it be borne in mind that being a citizen of Menapia 
does not necessarily mean that he was a native of the 
Continental Menapia : he may have been born in the 
Manapian town which Ptolemy places somewhere 
between Wexford Haven and Avonmore, on the east coast 
of Ireland ; and when one comes to look into the name 
Carausius, this becomes probable. For it can hardly be an 
accident that Carausius admits of being equated with the 

' For the history of Carau.'^ius see Aurelius Victor's Caesars (edited by 
Pichlmayer) xxxix. 20, 39, Eutropius, ix. 21, and other authors cited by Holder, 
s,v. Carausius. 

H 2 

LofC. 



100 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, iir.) 

Irish name Cu-roi} which, according to the analogy ah"eady 
discussed (pp. 68, 72), seems to have meant the Hound of 
the Plain or of the Field, probably of the Battlefield ; and it 
was borne b}' a personage well known in Irish literature. 
Cu-roi is represented in Irish literature as a consummate 
magician and a great warrior usually engaged in expeditions 
to Sc}'thia and other distant lands ; but he has unfortunately 
been inextricably confused with a great ancestral figure in 
the West of Ireland, whose name was Cii-ri, and his fortress 
has accordingly been identified with Cathair Con-ri, 
"Caher Conree, or the City of Cii-ri," in Kerry. The true 
position, however, of Cii-roi's stronghold is more correctly 
indicated by the circumstantial evidence of the locality of 
certain foes who made attacks on it at night : some come 
from Breg, the eastern portion of Meath, roughl)' speaking, 
and some from Sescenn Uairbeoil, "Marsh of Uarb^l," some- 
where on the east coast of Leinster. On the Welsh side, 
poem xlii. in the Book of Taliessin purports to be the elegy 
of Cu-roi, calls him Corroi, represents him holding a helm on 
the Sea oftheSouth, and connects him seemingly with Dover.- 
If this view should prove correct, it is easy to under- 
stand that, belonging to a colony which probably traded with 

' The first part of C«-;w' consists of «/, " liound," the vowel of which is long; 
but in a compound like Cfi-roi the stress accent being on the second element 
roi, the v of cii would lose a part of its length, yielding practically Ca-roi or 
Co-roi. Tiien as to the spelling of Ca-raitsiiis with a, compare Kanovio on a 
Roman milestone (now in the British Museum) for Conozno, now Conwy, 
Anglicised Conway, in North Wales. As to the other part of the name Ca- 
rausius, the intervocalic s, according to rule, disappears, yielding ;w, concerning 
which see Stokes's " Urk. Sprachschatz, " p. 235, where he traces roc, roi, 
" ebenes Feld," to the same origin as the I atin rus, genitive ruris. Corroi in 
the Taliessin poem is genitive for Con-roi. 

- .See the story called Fled Bricrenn in Windisch's " Irische Texte," 
pp. 294-300. As to Sescenn Uairbeoil, this has been recently identified 
with the Esgeir Oerz'el of the Twrch Trvvyth story (Oxford Mabinogion, 
pp. 135-6) by Prof. Meyer, in the "Transactions of the Cymmrodorion Society," 
1895-6, p. 73. Uarbel seems to mean the "Cold-mouth,"' referring to some 
gap or gully where n cold wind usually blows : compare The Sloe, in the Isle 
of Man known in Manx as the t!reat Mouth t)f the Wind. 



ROMAN BRITAIN. lot 

Britain and with the Belgic coast, including the Menapian 
mother-state, Carausius was used from his boyhood to the 
sea. If, moreover, the colony was, as we have supposed, 
Belgic or Brythonic, he could presumably pass as a Brython, 
but the fact of his name being Goidelic argues his being 
partly of Goidelic descent : in other words, he would seem 
to have been favourably situated to become popular with 
both Brythons and Goidels, and to make them consider 
him one of themselves, whether in Britain or on the Con- 
tinent. During his time, at all events, we read of no diffi- 
culties with the tribes beyond the Roman Wall. The same 
remark applies to the three years of Allectus's rule ; but 
his name ^ points to the North of Britain, whence also his 
troops may have been largely drawn. No sooner, however, 
had Rome resumed possession of the province than the 
northern tribes began to be troublesome once more, and 
they are now, for the first time, spoken of as Caledones 
and "other Picts,""^ against whom Constantius Chlorus 
undertook, in 296, an expedition beyond the Wall. The 
effect of the chastisement which he then inflicted on them 
appears to have lasted some time. 

The next serious attack on the province took place in 
360, when the Picts from the north were joined by a people 
from Ireland, figuring for the first time in history under 
the name of Scotti. They were probably mixed bands of 
Goidels, Cruithni or Picts of Ireland, and Fir Ulaid or True 
Ultonians. These last had been crowded into the north- 
east corner of that island in consequence of the conquest 
of Oriel or southern Ulster some years previously by Celts 

' We have it in the name of the Perthshire town of Alyth, in an older form 
Aleecht, and probably also in the Welsh name Elaeth, borne, according to 
Williams's "Eminent Welshmen," by a sixth century saint and poet, who had, 
before he took to a saintly life, been a king in a district in the north of England. 
See also Skene's "Four Ancient Books," ii. 344. 

- See Eumeniub's " Panegyricus Constantino," c. 7 : Non dico Caledonuni 
aliorunii]ue Pictoruin silvas et paltides. 



102 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

from the direction of Meath. The Scotti presumably 
crossed at first into Galloway, where we have surmised 
the Genunians to have dwelt ; and on this occasion the 
]5eople of Galloway, the descendants of the Genunians of 
a former age, take part themselves in the attack on the 
province ; these were probably the Atecotti represented 
as located between the southern and the northern Walls, 
and their name would seem to have meant the Old or Ancient 
Race. The Picts from the north are this time described as 
consisting of Dicaledonae and Verturiones, in whom we 
seem for certain to have the Caledonii and Maeatae of Dion 
Cassius respectively ; for the term Dicaledonae used by 
Ammianus Marcellinus (xxvii. 8) seems to have meant the 
inhabitants of the Highlands conceived of as forming two 
Caledonias, severed by the waters of Loch Linnhe, Loch 
Lochy, Loch Ness and Inverness Firth, or else as consisting 
of a Lowland and a Highland region. As to Verturiones, 
that is a name which gave rise ultimately to the designa- 
tion Fir Fortrenn} as it were Viri Vertuvionis, "the 
Men of Fortremi" a district in which the Picto-Brythonic 
people of the Lowlands had their headquarters at Forteviot 
till the centre of gravity was shifted to the banks of the 
Tay by Kenneth mac Alpin and his dynast)-. Thus the 
Verturiones seem to have been the Boresti of Tacitus and 
the Maeatae of Dion. Whilst these tribes were attacking 
the province on one side, the Saxons were plundering it on 
another, especially the south-eastern coast. In 369 Theo- 
dosius arrived and put a stop to the devastation, which had 
extended to the heart of the province, and he renewed 
the stations on the Wall. Add to this that the Atecotti 

' It is possible that we have a survival of the nominative in Fothrev-e or 
Fot/irif, the name of a district embracing Kinross and a part of Fife : see 
Skene's "Picts and Scots," pp. Ixxxiv., Ixxxv., 136. This would imply that 
Fothrif stands for an earlier Fortliriit, and that the old Brythonic forms 
were approximately VorthrJ^o, genitive VortJu-ionos. See " Pro. Soe. Antiq. 
.Scotland," xxxii. 396. 



ROKfAN BRITAIN. 103 

were subdued and their able-bodied men drafted into the 
Roman army in Gaul, where St. Jerome reports^ having 
seen some of that race, which was in his time believed to 
be cannibals. The province continued to be attacked from 
without by land and sea, and to be cleared from time to 
time of the spoilers by the Roman soldiers, until at last the 
exigencies of the empire compelled Rome to withdraw her 
troops from the island altogether early in the fifth century. 

A word now as to the administration. At the date to 
which the Notitia Dignitatuin or the Table of Dignities 
belongs, the military command of Roman Britain was dis- 
tributed as follows : — ( i ) There was the Count of Britain 
Comes rei inilitaris Britanniaruni^ Comes Britanniarum or 
Comes Bi'itannicE, who wath his troops was not fixed in any 
particular locality ; (2) the General or Duke of Britain, 
Dux Britanniarum or Dux BritannicB^ who had command 
of the troops on the Wall and in the country south of it 
to the Humber ; and (3) the Count of the Saxon Shore, 
Comes litoris Saxonici per Britannias, who had charge 
of the south-east of the island, where there were, from the 
fourth century, military posts placed at intervals from the 
Wash to the Isle of Wight, as a defence against invasions 
by the Saxons and other Teutonic tribes. Comparatively 
little is known concerning the civil administration of Britain 
under the Romans, but the organisation of it, at the head 
of which stood the Vicar of the Britannias, Vicarius Britan- 
niarum, was practically subordinated to the military system, 
owing doubtless in a great measure to the continuous attacks 
to be expected from without. Roman Britain was treated 
as a single province till the year 210, when Severus divided 
it into two, called Lower and Upper Britain, Britannia 
Inferior and Britannia Superior ; but ^^'e have no indica- 
tion as to their respective positions beyond the fact that 
Eburacum, '' York," was in Lower Britain ; while Deva, 

' See " Hieronymus adversus lovinianum, ' ii. 7 (p. 50). 



S04 fHE WELSH PEOPLl>. (chap, hi.) 

" Chester," and Isca Silurum, " Caerleon," on the Usk, were 
in Upper Britain. This naturally suggests that Lower 
Britain was the area drained by rivers flowing to the North 
Sea and the English Channel, and that Upper Britain was 
so situated as to be reached by travelling up the valleys of 
the rivers of Lower Britain, in other words the region beyond 
the watershed and draining into the various parts of the 
Irish Sea. But Mr. Haverfield is of opinion that Upper 
Britain was the first portion of the island reached by the 
Romans, that it comprised the whole of the south as far as 
a line drawn from the Mersey to the H umber, and that 
Lower Britain lay north of that line : such a division would 
seem to have the advantage of fitting in better with the 
military arrangements already suggested. Possibly the 
e.xplanation is, that S everus found the terms Lower and 
Upper Britain already in use in his time in the sense which 
we have suggested, and that he altered their application .so 
far as to make Lower Britain comprehend all south of the 
Merse)' and the Humber, and Upper Britain all the Roman 
territory be)'ond those waters ; for we are not convinced 
that the relative position of Lower and LIpper Britain was 
the reverse. 

In 297 Diocletian divided Roman Britain into four 
provinces called Prima, Secunda, Flavia Cai^sariensis, and 
Ma.xima Citsariensis ; but all that has been made out 
as to their positions is that Cirencester was in Britannia 
Prima. In 369 a fifth province was made, called Valentia, 
after the Emperor Valens, but the position of this also is 
uncertain ; it has been supposed to have been the district 
between the two Walls. In the second and third century 
the forces here consisted of three legions, one stationed at 
York, one at Chester, and a third at Caerleon. Besides 
these there were auxiliary cohorts, \vith their cavalr}', mostl\' 
recruited in German}\ stationed on the Wall and at various 
p')ints in the district between the Tyne and the Humber, 



kOMAN BRITAiH. io^ 

which was largely given up to those troops. The Brigantes 
were not reduced to quietness till the end of the second 
century, and for another century native troops were seldom 
employed in garrisons in the island : they were drafted away 
to Germany. 

When the Roman legions finally departed the provincials 
appear to have been on the whole equal to the task of 
repelling attacks from the north ; at any rate, there is no 
evidence that any Caledonians or other Picts were able to 
effect a single settlement south of the Clyde or the Forth. 
The question of invasions from Ireland is a more difficult 
one, as it cannot be severed from the other question, already 
touched upon : What Goidelic populations had their home 
in this country before the coming of the Romans, and 
remained here till after the departure of the legionaries ? 
But in spite of the threnody of Gildas over the ravages 
committed by Picts and Scots, the principal misfortunes 
of the Brythons came from a different quarter, namely, 
from the Continent ; we mean the permanent conquests 
effected here by the Teutonic peoples of the Saxons, the 
Angles, and the Jutes. In the continued effort to hold 
their own the Brythons may naturally be expected to have 
at first endeavoured to maintain the offices to which Roman 
administration had accustomed them. Thus they v/ould 
probably have somebody filling the office of Count of 
Britain, or, perhaps more likely, of that and the office of 
Emperor all in one, now that the Emperor of Rome con- 
cerned himself no more with the affairs of the island. 
Welsh literature does not fail to supply us with a personage 
fitted for such a position, and that is Arthur, at any rate 
in so far as Arthur can be treated as a historical man and 
not a myth. He exerted himself, according to Nennius, as 
the Dux Bellorum of the kings of the Brittones, and his 
activity manifested itself in all parts of the country. In 
Welsh stor\' he is called Aj)iberawdvr, which is the L^tin 



lo6 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

word hnpet'ator borrowed, and also Penteyvne^yr Ynys konri, 
"Chief of the Rulers of this Island,"^ but not king till late. 
With more confidence, however, one detects a post- 
Roman officer filling the position of the Dux Britannm^ 
in command of the forces on the Wall and in the adjacent 
district, namely, in Cuneda the Gwledig or Ruler, to whom 
reference has already been made (p. 9). His pedigree 
represents him as son of yEtern (^ALtermis), son of Pateni 
Pesrut {Paternus of the Red tunic, in reference probably to 
the purple of office), son of Tacit ( Tacitus) ; while one of 
his own sons was called Dunawd {Donatus), and one of his 
grandsons was Meriaun {Marianus), after whom is called 
Meirionyd or Merioneth." So the family of Cuneda 
must have been Christian, and perhaps partly of Roman 
descent. The most powerful branch of it supplied Venedos 
or Gwyned with kings, and the most powerful of them 
appears to have been Maglocunos or Maelgwn, who was 
contemporary with Gildas, by whom he is called Insularis 
Draco, meaning probably thereby the Dragon or Leader 
of the Island of Britain. The explanation of the term is 
presumably that the general or leader had as his ensign a 
dragon, which had descended to him from the Dux Britannicp 
in Roman times. In the seventh century this dragon 
figures, as heraldry teaches, as the Red Dragon of King 
Cadwaladr, who was the last of the line of Cuneda and 
Maelgwn to try to wield the power which Maelgwn enjoyed. 
What that power precisely was, is only a matter of inference. 
Maelgwn was King of Gwyned, but he seems also to have 
exercised sway over the whole of the country from the 
Severn Sea to the Firth of Forth. How he obtained this 
wider power becomes intelligible on the supposition that 
the office of Dux BritanuicE had been continued from 

' See the Story of Kulhwch and Olwen, in the O.xford Mab., p. 105. 
^ See " Y Cymmiodor," ix. 170, 178, 182, and see the pedigree in the note 
on p. 120 below. ■ 



ROMAN BRITAIN. lo; 

Roman times, and that the Gwyned branch of the Cuneda 
family had been able to keep it in their own hands. Thus 
however widely the east and south of the island had been 
wrested from the Brythons by Teutonic tribes, there still 
was what might be called Roman Britain, though it no 
longer owed allegiance to Rome, and its head would 
naturally be hailed by Gildas as the Dragon of the Island. 
It was more congenial to his style to describe him in that 
way than to call him simply Btix BritannicB. Though 
Gildas had grave faults to find with Maelgwn, the latter was 
of his own race, and that must have counted for a great 
deal with one who hated Picts and Scots and Saxons with 
the bitter hatred of an irritable saint. 

Maelgwn's son and successor, Rhun, appears to have been 
less able than his father, but we read of him making war as 
far north as the river Forth,^ probably in order to retain his 
father's power ; and it seems to have been successfully so 
retained, to be lost only to the Angles after a prolonged 
struggle. This may be said to have begun with the winning 
of the battle of Chester by yEthelfrith of Deira in the year 
6 1 6, and to have been continued later in a war between Cad- 
waiton. King of Gwyned, and Eadwine or Edwin, King of 
the Angles of Bernicia. Bede, in speaking of Cadwatton, 
calls him oftenest Rex Brettonum, " King of the Brythons," 
but he is also found once using the term Brettonum Dux, 
" general or leader of the Brythons." Edwin triumphed for 
a time over Cadwailon, and it appears from what Bede says 
that Edwin was the first of the kings of the English to have 
a banner carried before him when he rode forth and a tuft 
of feathers when he went on foot. This Roman fashion 
was probably also that of the Dux BritannicE down to Cad- 
watton, from whom Edwin would seem to have adopted 
it as a visible indication that he had taken the position of 
Cadwafton. It was then also presumably that was first 

1 See Aneuiin Owen's " Laws and Institutes of Wales,'" i. 104, 5. 



io8 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

heard the title of Bretiualda} Ruler of " Britons," other- 
wise Bryten-ivnlda or Brytcn-zvealda, Breten-anwealda, and 
Bryten-weald, " Ruler of Britain ; " for all these forms 
of it are <^iven in the manuscripts of the Saxon Chronicle, 
when, in speaking of Ecgbryht, it enumerates those of his 
predecessors supposed to have wielded more power than 
the others. The diversity of form which the title shows in 
English documents argues a certain amount of hesitation 
between Dux Brittonum, which would in Welsh be Gtvlcdig 
Brython, and Dux Britannice, which Welsh poetry renders 
Prydein Wledic} Nay, one would not err perhaps in sup- 
posing that the term gwledig (earlier \^g\wledic, ivle/ic) had 
something to do with the choice in Anglo-Saxon of the word 
zvalda or an-ivealda, " a ruler or sovereign," to translate the 
title into that language. As it happens, the words are also 
cognate, for givlad, \^g\wlat, meant the government or 
power of the state, while Anglo-Saxon zvealdan was "to rule 
or ivield power." 

The battle of Chester made no difference in the claims of 
the kings of Gwyned to be givledigs or overlords ; and this 
is the light in which should be read the epitaph of King 
Cadfan, put up by his son Cadwatton or b}' his grandson 
Cadwaladr : Cat(Xinanus rex sapientisiiiins opiiiatisiiiius 
oinniuui reguin'^ " King Cadfan the wisest, the most 
renowned of all kings." It was inspired not so much by a 
spirit of random flattery, perhaps, as by the ancient pre- 
tensions of the famil}-. The final history of the struggle 
between the kings of Gw)'ned and the princes of the Angles 
was this : Cadwatton returned from exile in Ireland and 
was for a time triumphant in the assertion of his ancient 

' See the Oxford New English Dictionaiy, s.v. NreiiooUa, where the 
untenable nature of Kemhle's interpretation of " wide ruler" is exposed, and 
the equivalence of /Kthelstan's Bryteiiwalda ealles ityscs iglaiids with r,;tior 
totms huius Britanniic hisiili/' is advanced 

- See Skene's "Four Ancient Books of Wales," ii. 138. 

" Rhys's "Lectures on Welsh Philology, p. 364. 



ROMAN BRITAIN. too 

right to the office of gwledig or overlord, Edwin having 
been slain by him in a great battle fought in 633 at Heth- 
field, somewhere near Doncaster. The Angles continued 
the struggle under yEthelfrith's son Oswald, and Cadwaiton 
fell in a battle fought with him in 635 in the neighbourhood 
of Hexham. Cadwaiton's son Cadwaladr tried for some time 
to recover the position of his ancestors, but his efforts failed 
and his personality passed into legend as that of Cadwaladr 
the Blessed. For some time afterwards the bards of the 
Brythons sang of the expected return of Cadwaladr to lead 
his people to victory, and to assert the ancient rights of 
his family, described in this context as Kessarogyon or 
Caesarians.^ 

The Dux Brittonuni had long been also rex and king, 
to wit, king of Gwyned, so the title of Dux Brittonum very 
naturally passed into that of Rex Brittonum ; in the pages 
of Bede one finds this latter all but uniformly preferred. 
Henceforth also the domain of the Rex Brittonum, what 
was left of Roman Britain, dwindled down to the dimensions 
of Wales. There, however, the title continued in vogue : 
witness the oldest version of the Annates Cambrice, com- 
piled about the middle of the tenth century, which under 
the year 754 record the death of Rotri rex Brittonum, and in 
950 that of Higuel rex Brittonum- The Bruts continued for 
some time to use the same phraseology;'^ thus under 1056 
is mentioned Grufud vrenhin y brytanyeit, " Griffith, king 
of the Britons." In 1091, with the death of Rhys, son of 
Tewdwr, the kingdom of the Britons {teyrnas y brytanyeit) 
is said to have fallen. Under the year 1 1 1 3 allusion is 
made to the wish of certain Welshmen to renew the kingdom 

' See Skene's "Pour Ancient Books of Wales," i. 444-46, 487-90; ii. 
25-8, 21 1-3. 

' " Y Cymmrodor," ix. 161, 169. 

•' See Rhys and Evans's "Bruts" (Oxford, 1890), pp. 267, 270, 296, 309, 
341. 355. 361, 365. 368, 369. 375. 379; and " Brut y Tyvvysogion " (Rolls, 
i860), pp. 44, 54. 124, 158, 252, 288, 306, 316, 326, 356. 



no THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

of the Britons {brytana6l teyrnas). Under 1135 two of 
the sons of Gruffud ab Kynan are represented as jointly 
holding together the whole kingdom of the Britons 
{hott deyrnas y brytanyeit). In the subsequent entries the 
phraseology changes, Kyi/iry, " Wales, Welshmen," being 
introduced. In 1198 Gwenwynwyn, prince of Powys, 
purposed an attempt to secure for the Kyniry their ancient 
rank, their ancient rights and boundaries. In 1 2 1 6 ILy welyn, 
son of lorwerth, summoned to him, at Aberdovey, all the 
princes of Wales ijiott tyivyssogyon kymry) to partition the 
land of Wales ; and in 1220 he summoned most of the Welsh 
princes to him in order to join in an attack on the Anglo- 
Flemings of Roose and Pembroke. In 1228 the English 
king, after making an expedition into Wales, makes peace 
with ILywelyn ab lorwerth, and during the latter's lifetime 
all the princes of Wales swore allegiance to his son David 
in 1238, at Strata Florida ; lastly, when ILywelyn died in 
1240, he is called prince of Wales (Jyivyssa6c kymry). In 
1258 we read of an assembly of the princes of the country 
swearing allegiance to ILywelyn, son of Gruffud, and in 1 267 
we find the English king, Henry III., formally and solemnly 
acknowledging the right of the prince of Wales to the 
homage of the barons who held land in Wales. This 
ILywelyn ab Gruffud proved to be the last of the line of 
Cuneda and Maelgwn to occupy the position of prince of 
Wales, for as is well known the military successes and 
shrewd policy of Edward I. achieved the substitution of 
the heir to the English crown for a native prince of the 
race of Maelgwn and Cuneda. Even thus the Prince of 
Wales of the present day is historically the actual repre- 
sentative of the Dux Britannice of Roman Britain ; but his 
Roman Britain is Wales, and it differs in one important 
particular from the Gaulish portions of the Roman Empire, 
namely, in that it has not, like them, adopted the Latin 
lancTuage. The number of Latin words, however, in the 



ROMAN BRITAIN. iii 

vocabulary of the Celtic language of Wales shows that the 
latter began to give way to Latin ; and this would have 
continued to go on had not the Latin firmly rooted in the 
east and south of Britain been submerged. Strange as it 
may appear, had it not been for the English language, by 
which the existence of Welsh is now threatened, the Welsh 
language would have long ago given way to a Latin idiom 
resembling French. 

Lastly, another glance at the map of southern Britain 
and the position on it of some of the Brythonic tribes will 
enable us to infer the relative dates of their advent. Thus 
the Britanni from the opposite coast of the Straits of Dover 
probably took possession first of Cantion or Kent. Passing 
by the Regni of obscure origin and overshadowed by the 
woods of Anderida, we find next in order the Belgae, who 
may have been preceded by the Dobunni ; but these last 
may have made their way round Cornwall and sailed up the 
estuary of the Severn, or they may have drifted westwards 
from the Midlands. A similar uncertainty attaches to the 
Atrebates ; they may have come up the Thames, but it is 
perhaps more likely that they came about the same time 
with the Belgae and pushed inland from the neighbourhood 
of the Isle of Wight. We now come to a second group, 
some members of which must have made for the mouth 
of the Thames. The first of these were probably the 
Trinovantes, who posted themselves on the coast of Essex 
and the banks of the Thames as far, at any rate, as the site 
of London, which the fashionable Romans of a later day 
thought they had re-named Augusta for all time.^ The 

^ See Tacitus, Ann. xiv. ^2> ^"^^ Ammianus, xxvii. 8 ; xxviii. 3. Luckily 
for the histurian the ease with which a superior race thinks it consigns to 
obhvion a place-name current among its subjects often proves delusive, as in 
this instance of London ; but it is a matter of regret that no Roman inscrip- 
tion discovered in London or elsewhere gives the full name of Londinmm, 
or whatever the Latin spelling may have been ; we have nothing more than 
the abbreviation LON, 



112 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, hi.) 

Catuvellauni, coming about the same time, had to proceed 
higher up the river before landing to conquer the Midlands. 
After the Trinovantes came also the Eceni, who landed 
on the coast between the Trinovantes and the Wash ; we 
offer no guess as to their home on the Continent. The 
same remark applies to the Brythons beyond the Wash, 
namely the Coritavi, who arrived, presumably, by the way 
of the Humber, as did also, perhaps about the same time, 
the Parisi, the remains of whose iron chariots impart a 
special interest to the archaeology of the opposite district 
between the Derwent and the North Sea. 

If we look westwards, our attention is challenged by the 
Ordovices and the Cornavii, both of obscure origin. The 
former possibly acquired their individuality in the Midlands, 
and thence gradually pushed their way westwards to the 
sea, leaving in the possession of unnamed Goidels what is 
now the north-west corner of Wales, including Mona, or 
Anglesey, where Agricola found Druids. The latter, namel)' 
the Cornavii, seem to bear a geographical name describing 
them as the inhabitants of the Iioni or peninsula, as though 
they had landed between the estuaries of the Dee and the 
Mersey and thence penetrated inland. The same interpreta- 
tion fits the Celtic com (Latin coniu, English horn) in the 
name of Cornwall and in that of the Cornavii, in the extreme 
north. It need not be supposed to imply identity of race : 
thus the Cornavii on the Dee were Brythons, while the 
northern Cornavii were as probably a tribe of the Aborigines. 
The last groups of Brythons consisted of the Brigantes and 
the Votadini, that is unless we should include with them 
the Parisi from the banks of the Seine. This could hardl}- 
be correct if our conjecture (p. 86) fixing the home of the 
Brigantes in the country at the mouth of the Rhine should 
prove tenable. The position of the Brigantes in this country 
would seem to show, that they arrived comparatively late 
and landed probabl)' from the Humber or the Tees, or from 



kOMAN BRITAIN. 113 

both. Last of all came the Votadini, who took up their 
abode on the coast from the Tyne to the Firth of Forth, 
together with the adjacent country as far, perhaps, as 
Bannockburn. 

This, however, does not cover the whole Brythonic 
area towards the west and the north, since Brythonic 
speech is found to have acquired, previous to Kenneth 
mac Alpin's reign, a footing among the Picts of Forteviot, 
to which must be added the fact that Goidelic also 
appears, in later times, in the valley of the Tay pos- 
sessed of such a hold there as to be difficult to account 
for. So we are forced to suppose that a considerable 
mixture of Pictish, Goidelic and Brythonic must have 
existed in the country extending from the Firth of Clyde 
to the banks of the Tay ; in other words, the Picts beyond 
the Forth were fairly well protected by the deep mud of the 
Forth ^ on one side and by the Ochil range on another, while 
their Celtic aggressors took one and the same path towards 
the Tay, namely, that passing between Stirling and Dunmyat, 
and now sufficiently indicated by the line of railway from 
Stirling to Perth : it became also the route of the Roman 
legions, as indicated by the camp at Ardoch. 

But roughly speaking, the inland region from the Firth 
of Clyde to the basin of the Tay is that assigned by 
Ptolemy to the Dumnonii, and there were Dumnonii 
also in the south-west of the island:- neither appear to 

' It is probably the muddiest river in the kingdom, and its name Forth 
may be supposed to refer to this peculiarity of its waters, if we may take the 
word to be Celtic and the etymological equivalent of its Welsh name Giveryd, 
M'hich would seem to be the same word as Welsh gweryd, " soil, mould, or 
earth." Similarly, its ancient name ol Bodotria seems to have its explanation 
in the Welsh Imdr^ "dirty " : Ptolemy calls it BoSepia, which does not harmonise 
with hidr with its u for an older u or 0. Skene's " Picts and Scots " gives Forth a 
dative Foixiu (to be read probably Forthiu) and a genitive Forthin, pp. 10, 43. 

- Holder, s.v. Dumnonii, mixes the two peoples up. and declares them to 
have been Brythons ; but it is right to say that the article seems to have 
accidentally escaped revision. 

W.P. I 



114 'THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap. 111;^ 

have been Brythonic. In fact, the position of the two 
peoples so designated suggests the hypothesis that their 
countries are to be regarded as extreme portions of the 
GoideHc area which had escaped conquest by the Brythons, 
and that the word Diunnonii was a collective name of 
the Goidels of Britain when the Brythons arrived. The 
adjective discloses the stem Duinnon, which, treated in a 
way not unusual with Irish names, would yield a nominative 
Doinnii, genitive Douinann ; and we are thus led back by 
eas}' steps to the Fir Douinann, that is, ] Iri Duiiinonis, or 
Domnu's Men, already mentioned. We infer that one 
of the Fir Domnann's landing places in Ireland was the 
river-mouth known as Malahide River, between Howth and 
Balbriggan, in County Dublin ; for in Med. Irish it is called 
Inber Domnatin, or the Domnu river-mouth, and from that 
point the Dronga Dovinand} or the Multitudes of Domnu, 
proceeded to the conquest of the fertile soil of Meath and 
adjacent districts. This we should have to regard as an 
attack on Ireland in front, but we are reminded that she 
was also assailed from behind, so to say : witness such a 
place-name as Irrus Domnann, "the lorrus of Domnu," now 
the barony of Erris in the north-west of the county of Mayo, 
and witness also the Irish stories of early invasions of the 
north of Connaught from the sea. The explanation is 
probably that some of the Dumnonii, from their home near 
the Firth of Clyde, sailed round the north of Ireland, and 
landed in the nearest part of Connaught : hence the Fir 
Domnann of some of the Irish legends. Nor is this all, for 
they ma)' have coasted further southwards ; and this may 
possibly be the ke}' to the legend which represents Scota, the 
epon)'m of the Irish Scots of the Milesian group, as buried in 
Kerry, where her grave and that of one of her companions are 
pointed out in the barony of Troughanacmy, in that county.- 

' See O'Curry's MS. Materials, p. 485, and Stokes's "Patrick," p. 34. 
- See O'Duiiuvan's uutes lu the Four Masters under the year a.m. 3500. 



ROMAN BRITAIN. 115 

However that may be, the Fir Domnann on this side of 
the Irish Sea have left the name of the goddess Domnui 
to the county of Devon ; and in the North, Hkewise as 
Devon, it has become the name of a river rising within their 
natural boundary in the Ochil Hills. Even should these 
conjectures prove tenable, the tribes in the west of Roman 
Britain must be pronounced hard to classify, while on the 
eastern side, in spite of the usual scantiness of the data, 
there is little room for error in this respect. There the 
Brythonic settlements were continuous from Dover to the 
Forth, as it has been comprehensively put in the Diian 
Albanadi, a historic poem concerning Alba, or Scotland, 
which is surmised to have been written in Ireland in the 
eleventh century and to represent the ideas of a still earlier 
time. The Duan begins with the Trojan story, and repre- 
sents Albanus and Brutus, treated as eponymi of Alba 
and the territory of the Brittones respectively, taking 
possession of Britain. The third stanza runs thus- : — 

Ro ionnarb a bnithair bras To exile Brutus drove his big brother 
Briotus tar muir n-Ioth n-amnas Over the stormy sea of loth : 

Rogab Briotus Albain din To himself Brutus noble Britain took 
Go rinn fiadnack Fot/iudain. As far as Fothudan's . . . foreland. 

This last doubtless meant, as already suggested, a 
promontory in the country of the Guotodin, somewhere 

' In the transition from Doiiinii or Domnann to Devon it is to be 
remembered that Welsh has made mn into vn and Irish into tun. In the 
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (with f — v) Devonshire is sometimes written 
Def\e'\nascire and sometimes Def[e\nanscire. See Thorpe's Rolls ed. , i. , 
120, 121, 146, 147, 166, 167, 246, 247. 

2 For the text see the Irish Nennius, pp. 272-3 ; and Skene's " Picts and 
Scots," p. 57 — the original MS. appears to have been lost (Jbid.,-pp. xxxvi-iii). 
We have substituted lot/i for Ic/it, which makes no sense here, as Muir n-Iclit 
would be the English Channel. As to loth and lodeo, see Rhys's Rhind Lectures 
in the " Scottish Review" for 1891, p. loi, where perhaps it might be more cor- 
rect to say that meriti was obtained by analysing into tra vierin the Latin 
transmarinus ; as, for instance, in Gildas's diiabiis primuin gentibus trans- 
marinis vehementer scsvis, Scotoruin a circione Pictorum ab aqv'-lone 
(Hist, g 14). 

I 2 



lr6 THE wnLSti PEOPLE. (ctiAT. iii.) 

near North Berwick ; and the whole of the island up to that 
point means all the country from the Straits of Dover to 
the Firth of Forth, which is here termed Muirn-Ioth^ or Sea 
of loth. This is undoubtedly to be identified with the water 
called Merin lodeo in the Book of Aneurin, and lodeo 
further equates letter for letter with Nennius's name of a 
town of ludeu, which Bede calls Urbs Giiidi} In Scotch 
history the Firth was well known as Scottewatre and Scottis 
See. Lastly, as will have been gathered from our previous 
remarks, the fact of giving the name Alba to Britain, 
when referring expressly to the southern half of the Island, 
from the English Channel to the Firth of Forth, argues a 
very respectable antiquity for the tradition set forth in the 
poem. 

' As references here may he further mentioned — for Merin lodeo, Skene's 
"Four Ancient Books," ii. 103 ; Thomas Stephens's •"Gododin" (London, 1888), 
pp. 348-9. For Itideu, see San-Marte"s " Nennius und Gildas," §65 (p. 74); 
and for Bede's Giudi ur ludi, see Plummer's Bedes "Hist. Eccles. '' 
i. 12 (vol. i., p. 25). Here should be added Miiir n-Giudan, quoted (from 
the Book of Lecan) in Reeves's Culdees, p. 124, and to be explained 
probably as liaving ni modified into ngi (rather than influenced by Bede's 
Giudi). This sort of change is common enough, for example, in Manx Gaelic : 
see Rhys's '"Manx Phonology." pp. 135-6. But more interesting philo- 
logically is the identity of the termination of lodeo and ludeu with the evi> of 
such names as Frobhaccennevv in the Aboyne Ogam : see the " Proceedings of 
the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland," xxxii. 396; also the suggestion in the 
note, at p. 102 above, as to the name FothriJ. 



CHAPTER IV. 

EARLY HISTORY OF THE CYMRY. 

In this and the following four chapters we propose to deal 
briefly with the history of the Cymric nation,^ to give 
some account of the laws and customs of the people during 
the time of their independence, and to trace the steps by 
which Wales became politically assimilated to England. 
We do not affect to write a history of Wales and the 
Marches, for that is in our opinion a task that cannot be 
successfully performed with the aid only of the materials 
at present at our command. 

Many of the sources of information as to the middle and 
later periods of the Welsh stor}- which have survived to our 
da}' are to be found at the Record Office and elsewhere, 
but have not been published or even properly examined ; 
and even the well-known authorities have for the most 
part been only very indifferently edited and printed.^ 
Under these circumstances any work dealing with the 
history of Wales must be looked on as merely tentative, 

1 It may be well to state here that Cymru means the land of the Cymry, i.e.. 
Wales ; and that Cymry means the Welsh people. Originally, of course, the 
latter term only included the men of the dominant tribes or clans, and not 
classes or persons subject to them. For the meaning and origin of the term 
see p. 26 above. 

- Progress is being made. See the " Public Records relating to Wales," by 
R. Arthur Roberts, Barrister-at-Law, in " Y Cymmrodor,"x., p. 157 ; and the 
" Ruthin Court Rolls" (in the Cymmrodorion Record Series), edited, with trans- 
lation, notes, etc., by the same author (Chas. J. Clark, Lond., 1893), affords 
a good model fov the treatment of the legal materials a.t the Record Office, 



ii8 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, iv.) 

and we only present what follows as matter likel}- to be 
useful and suggestive to the student of things Welsh. 

Most people have either forgotten or never observed that 
it was only in the century now ending that Wales was 
completely assimilated to England. Before the Norman 
Conquest we may truthfully say that Wales, though its 
rulers were in some sort of subjection to the kings 
of England, formed no part of the English realm, and 
it is only by gradual steps that it has been absorbed 
into the English body politic. Our principal aim is 
to point out the chief stages in the process by which 
the present constitutional position has been brought 
about. 

The history of Wales, as distinct from other portions of 
the Island, commences after the departure of the Romans. 
The scanty and obscure character of the evidence relating 
to the fifth and sixth centuries does not enable us to speak 
with any confidence as to the commencement of the 
national life of the Cymry. What is now Wales appears 
to have been during the time of the Roman occupation 
part of the territory extending, roughl}- speaking, from the 
Bristol Channel to the Clyde and the Forth, under the 
charge of the military official called Dux Britanniaruin , 
The word C}'mro means, according to the best philological 
authorities, "compatriot,"^ as we have seen, and it was in 
the contests of Celtic tribes with Teutonic immigrants that 
it became a national name. It seems perfecth' clear that 
for something over 200 years after the Romau occupation 
had ceased the western part of the Island, from the Bristol 
Channel to the Solwa)- Firth and the Clyde, as well as the 
south-western peninsula, were in the possession of tribes 
who may, subject to what has been said above,- be 
described as " Celtic," and who succeeded in maintaining 

' Sjipra, p. 26. 
2 Supra, pp. 34-5. 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CYMRY. 119 

their predominance in that part of the Island till a few years 
after the middle of the seventh century. The evidence of 
the Welsh laws referred to below tends to show that the 
tribal system therein disclosed was similar in its main and 
fundamental particulars to a stage of society through which 
other Indo-European races have passed. It seems clear, 
too, that these tribes were bound together in some loose 
form of confederation, and that from the time they recog- 
nised the term Cymry they looked upon themselves collec- 
tively as one nation. They appear to have acknowledged 
the over-lordship or leadership of a king or ruler, who was 
called the "gwledig," and whose office or dignity was 
sooner or later known as the " Crown of Britain." The 
authority of the gwledig appears to have been partly based 
on his claim to be the successor of the Roman officer called 
the Dux Britanniarwii, and partly on earlier tribal notions 
of political and military organisation.^ 

In time the territory over which the confederation spread 
came to be called Cymru, and the predominant language 
Cymraeg. The earliest ruler of the Cymry and of Cymru 
of whom there is distinct evidence is Cuneda, whose name 
often occurs in Welsh literature. In an elegy in the "Book 
of Taliesin" he is said to be a man from Coelin, by which 
was apparently meant the district since called Kyle in 
Ayrshire. In Nennius' " Historia Britonum " there occurs 
the following passage : — " The great King Mailcun reigned 
among the Britons in the district of Guenedota because his 
great-great-grandfather Cuneda with his twelve sons had 
come before from the left-hand (or northern) part, i.e., from 
the country which is called Manau Guotodin, 146 years 
before Mailcun reigned, and expelled the Scots with much 
slaughter from those countries, and they never again 

• One of the ancestors of Cuneda is called Padarn Pesriid (literally, 
Paternus of the red tunic). See Rhys's "Celtic Britain," 2nd ed., p. iiS. 
yee the pedigree printed in note 2 on p. 138 below, 



I20 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, iv.) 

returned."^ Guenedota here is obviously Gwyned (speak- 
ing broadly, North Wales) ; Manau Guotodin is evidently 
the Manaw of the Gododin of Welsh poems, and appears 
to have been a district in Scotland situate somewhere south 
of the Forth, but we have no means of determining its 
boundaries.- If the conjecture is true, Manaw was south of 
the northern Roman Wall, in the province of Valentia. The 
entry in Nennius is confirmed by Welsh tradition and 
by many items of archaeological, philological, and literary 
evidence So that we may take it that the Cymric king- 
dom was founded upon conquest, and that the aspect which 
society in what is now Wales presented in the centuries 
to which we are referring was that of an aggregate of 
Brythonic clans forming a tribal aristocracy superimposed 
upon Goidelic tribes, partly Celtic and Aryan in origin 
and partly Aboriginal, who had before occupied the land. 
The conclusion thus arrived at as to the early structure of 
Welsh societ}' is borne out b)^ the Welsh laws and customs 
of a later time. 

It is unnecessar}' to trace in detail, even were it 
possible for us to do so with accuracy, the steps by which 

' The date of Cunerta's occupation of North Wales cannot be exactly 
determined ; but it piobibly took place early in the fifth century, and very 
near to the departure of the Romans. The passage cited does not give the 
date of Maelgwn's reigning. The " Annates Cambrise " record his death as 
taking place in 547. He was a contemporary of Ciildas' (see " (jild. Epist.' 
^- 33)- The most probable dates for the liirth and death of the latter are 
516 and 570 respectively (Smith's "Diet. Christ. Biog. ," j-.«. Gildas). The 
•• Ann. Cain." assign his birth to 516, and the " Annales Tigernachi "" his death 
to 570. 

* In the genealogies annexed to tlie "Annales Cambrise" (as to iviiich see 
below, p. 132), the number of Cuneda's sons is put ut nine. The entry (which 
deserves the notice of the student) is as follows : "[H]ec sunt nomina filiorum 
Cuneda quorum numeras erat. ix. Typipaun primogenitus qui mortuus in 
regione que vocatur manau guodotin. et non uenit hue cum fratribus suis. pre 
[dictis] meriaun. filius ejus, divisit possessiones inter fratres. suos. ii. Osmail 
iii. rumaun. iiii. dunaut. v. Ceretic. vi. abloyc. vii. enniaun. girt. viii. docmail. 
ix, etern." See "V Cymmrodor," ix., p. 182, and below, p. 138. 



EARLY HISTORY OF THE CYMRY. 121 

invading Teutonic tribes advanced upon the western half 
of the Island, and by slow steps broke up the Cymric 
federation. Two well-ascertained events mark the process. 
By the loss of the battle of Deorham in 577, the Cymry 
of what is now Wales were severed from the Celtic tribes 
of the south-western peninsula, and afterwards, as a result 
of the battle of Chester in 616,^ the Cymry of Wales were 
also cut off from their northern allies. The Cymry were 
thus enclosed by Teutonic kingdoms within that part of the 
west of the island which subsequently was called Cymru by 
the inhabitants themselves and Wales by the conquering 
Saxon. 

Notwithstanding these disastrous battles, the Cymry 
proper maintained a vigorous struggle with very varying 
fortunes against the Saxon or English kingdoms. But the 
result of continuous warfare, though it did not bring about 
incorporation with the English kingdom till long after, was 
to create a state of complete disorganisation, from a military 
and a political point of view ; and by the defeat of 
Cadwaladr, shortly after the middle of the seventh century, 
the Cymric kingdom in the older sense came to a melan- 
choly end. This Cadwaladr is deemed by Welsh tradition 
to be the last king of the Cymry who wore the " Crown 
of Britain"; and that the result of the conflict of centuries 
was adverse to the Cymric nation is admitted by the brief 
but graphic entry in "Brut y Tywysogion," which says : 
" Cadwaladr died at Rome as Merdyn had previously 
prophesied to Vortigern of repulsive lips, and thenceforth 
the Britons lost the crown of the kingdom and the Saxons 
gained it."~ 

1 The date is uncertain. The Annals of Tighernach (see O'Connor's 
" Scriptores rerum hibeiuiicarum " and "Ann. Cam. ") put the battle under 613. 
But the true date seems 616. See Plummer's " Bsedse Opera Historica," ii., 
pp. 76, 77. Tighernach antedates the battle of Dsegsastan by three years, 
and probably does the same in regard to the battle of Chester, 

" See MiuTay, " Eng. Diet.," s.v, " Bretvy^ald^, " 



122 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, iv.) 

With this completion of a series of events the history of 
Wales in its limited and modern sense commences. 

The subsequent history of Wales may be divided into 
the following periods : — 

First. — From the death of Cadwaladr to the Norman 
Conquest of England. 

Second. — From that Norman Conquest to the conquest 
and settlement of North Wales by Edward I. 

Third. — From the settlement of Wales by Edward down 
to the incorporation of Wales into the English organi- 
sation, in the reign of Henry VIII. 

Fourth. — From the time of Henrv VIII. onward. 



CHAPTER V. 

HISTORY OF WALES FROM CADWALADR TO THE NORMAN 
CONQUEST. 

(A.D. 664— A. D. 1066.) 

Little is known of the history of Wales from the death 
of Cadwaladr to the death of Grufifyd ab ILewel}ai, 
Literary tradition has preserved the names and a bald 
account of the deeds (chiefly inconsiderable battles) of a 
line of kings or princes, some of whom are represented 
as kings of all Cymru or all the Britons ; but the persons 
it hands down to us are for the most part as shadowy as 
the ghosts of Banquo's issue. The account is colourless, 
and the men it brings to our notice in this period have 
hardly more living interest than the names in a genealogical 
tree. No relation of the events that happened in Wales 
during this time can be lively or dramatic unless one bases 
it more on plausible efforts of imagination than on credible 
evidence.^ But though this is the case, in order to under- 
stand the subsequent history, it is necessary to see what 
trustworth}- authorit}^ has to say about this period, and 
especially to discover as well as we can what were the 
chief political divisions of Cymric territory, or, to put the 
matter perhaps more accurately, how Cymric land was 
apportioned among the leading royal or princely families. 

' We have no assistance from bardic or poetic literature for the period from 
the sixlli century down to about 1080, when jNIeilir lamented Trahaearn (defeated 
and slain by Gruffyd ab Kynan). Stephens's "Literature of the Kymry " 
(2nd ed.), pp. IQ, "li, 



124 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

There is a considerable number of works dealing with 
the history of Wales, or with the history of Britain from a 
specially Welsh point of view. Passing over Geoffrey of 
Monmouth's^ work, which cannot be treated as serious 
history, and for the moment Caradog of ILancarvan's 
" Historie of Cambria," we may refer to the ambitious 
" Cambria Triumphans " of Enderbie as the principal 
example of an older type.- This writer carries back the 
Cymric story to Troy, and thence to the Tower of Babel. 
His fundamental conception is that all history may be 
reduced to a system of events radiating from Troy as a 
centre. For the early period dealing with this island 
he relies on Geoffrey of Monmouth, and for the events of 
the later period on Caradog of ILancarvan. It is only in 
regard to the "modern estate" that the book is of any value 
to the student of history. 

But besides works of this class there are other histories 
which discard older theories, though they are not adequatel)- 
critical, of which Warrington's and Jane Williams'-' are the 
best. Both are in the main founded on a sixteenth centur}' 
compilation — " The Historie of Cambria, a part of the most 
famous }'lande of Britaine, written in the British language 

' For a recent account of Geoffrey and the cliaracter and value of his work, 
see Morley's "English Writers," vol. iii., pp. 44-57. -See also Professor W. 
Lewis Jones' paper on Geoffrey in " The Transactions of the Hon. Soc. of 
Cymmrodorion." session 1898-9, p. 52. 

- " Cambria Triumphans, or Britain in its perfect lustre, showing the origin 
and antiquity of the illustrious nation, the succession of their kings and princes, 
the description of the countrey, the history of the modern estate, etc., etc.." 
by P. Enderbie; folio (Lond., 1661); reprinted 1810. See also Lewis' 
"History of Cireat Britain, etc., to which is added the Breviary of Britayne 
by Humfrey Lwyd, and lately Englished by Thomas Twine,'' folio (Lond. , 1729). 

•' " History of Wales in nine books, with an Appendix," by the Rev. William 
Warrington ; 410 (Lund., 1786). " History of Wales," l)y Jane Williams, 
8vo (Lond., 1869). Reference should also be made to the " History of Wales," 
by John Jones (barrister-at-law), Lond., 1824 ; and to " I Lanes Cymru," by the 
Rev. Thomas Price, commonly called by his bardic name, C<7r>!//!iana7cic (1S42). 
Seealsohis " Literary Remains "(Landovery, 1854-5). SeealsoO. M. Edwards' 
•• Hanes Cynuu." part i. (1895), an excellent text-book for Welsh students. 



CADWALADR to NORMAN CONQUEST. 125 

about two hundred years past : translated into English by 
H. Lloyd,^ gentleman, corrected, augmented, and continued 
out of records and best approved authors, by David Powel 
Doctor in Divinity," - Caradog of ILancarvan,-' the friend 
and contemporary of Geoffrey of Monmouth, was one of 
the band of men of letters who gathered around Robert, 
Earl of Gloucester, the illegitimate son of Henry I. The date 
of his birth is unknown, but it is supposed he died in 1 147. 
It was to him that Geoffrey left the history of the kings 
who succeeded the Ivor and Ini, who had " fiercely attacked 
the nation of the Angles" but to little purpose, just as he 
committed the kings of the Saxons to William of Malmes- 
bury and Henry of Huntingdon."* That Caradog wrote a 
chronicle is clearly proved, but in its original form it is not 
extant. Professor Tout thinks (with the probability of the 
case on his side) that it was written in Latin.' According 
to the address to the reader given by Powel, Caradog col- 
lected the successions and acts of the British princes after 
Cadwaladr to 1156 ; several copies of the collection were 
kept in the abbeys of Conway and Strata Plorida, which 
were "yearly augmented as things fell out," the two 
abbeys comparing the entries every third year. Powel 
says that the entries were continued to the year 1270, and 

' Humfrey Lwyd (physician and antiquary) was born in 1527, and died in 
1568. The MS. of his translation of Caradog's translation is preserved in the 
British Museum (Cotton MS. "Caligula," A. vi.jj't^. "Diet. Nat.Biog.," s. nom. 

" Small quarto, London, 1584; 2nd ed. (Lond., 1811). See also Wynne's 
" improved edition " (Lond., 1697); 2nd ed. (Lond., 1774) ; 3rd ed. (Merthyr, 
1812); 4th ed. (Shrewsbury, 1832). The edition of 1811 is the only exact 
reproduction of Powel's work. David Powel was born in 1552 (?). and died 
in 1598. He was vicar of Ruabon and rector of Lanfyiiin. The living 
of the latter parish he exchanged afterwards for Meifod {vide Diet. Nat. 
Biog., sub noiii.). He is honourably mentioned in "Strype's Annals," ii. 472-3 
(ed. 1824). 

^ See Diet. Nat. Biog., sub. nom.; also Morley's " English Writers," vol. iii. , 
pp. 95. 96, 97- 

'' See Geoffrey's " British History," book xii. , ch. 19 and ch. 20. 

* Diet. Nat. Bioz-, sub tiom. "Caradog." 



126 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

that transcripts of the work were made by divers, and that 
over a hundred copies were extant in Humfrey Lwyd's 
time. Il>w}'d translated the work into Enghsh, and a copy 
of the translation was bought by Sir Henry Sidney, Presi- 
dent of the Court of the Marches, and he, desiring its 
publication, entrusted the work to Dr. Povvel. The editor 
collated the copy with three versions of the Welsh work ; he 
added matter from other chronicles showing the additions 
b}' a change of type, prefixed a description of Wales by 
Sir John Prise, and added brief accounts of the Princes 
of Wales after the Edwardian Conquest. In this form tlie 
work was published in 1584, under the title set forth above. 

In our judgment the statements made in a work thus 
compiled, and published so late as 1584, cannot be relied 
on unless confirmed by the Welsh chronicles, to which we 
refer below, or by the authorities accepted by competent 
students of English history as trustworthy — at any rate, so 
far as the pre-Norman period is concerned. At the same 
time we cannot deny to the work considerable value, and 
assuming that the main text is down to the middle of the 
twelfth centur}- the work of Caradog, we ma)' look upon 
that part of the history as representing the Welsh tradi- 
tional view of the general course of Welsh affairs at a 
time when the memory of man\' of the events was com- 
paratively recent. 

But reall}- for the period we are now dealing with, the 
principal Welsh authorities which are entitled to credence 
are "Brut )• Tywy.sogion" and the "Annales Cambrian." ^ 

' "Brut y Tywysogion "'(?'.('.. liistory of the princes) and "Annales Cambriae" 
are the names given to two sets of chronicles which specially record affairs 
concerning Wales, and which in MS. seem to iiave l>een produced as a 
\\hole within the Cymric limits, though some of the entries in the "Annales 
CambritE " appear to have been written in Ireland, or at any rate to have been 
of Irish origin. The former set of MSS. is in Welsh, and the latter in Latin. 
The best critical account of the origin, the date, and the value of the MSS. is 
to be found in Mr. Egerton Phillimore's able paper entitled "The Publication 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 127 

From these sources, supplemented by the authorities relied 
on for the early history of the island by competent English 
writers, the story of these pre-Norman Welsh kings and 
princes must (if it be possible to do so at all) be con- 
structed. 

It is clear from the entry in the Brut that we have 
quoted above and from other sources that the death of 
Cadwaladr was regarded by the Cymry as an event of 
great importance, but as to its exact date we have no 
certain evidence. The Brut puts it as taking place in 68 1 , 
but the writer uses language which shows that for some 
reason he confounded Cadwaladr with Ceadwalla, king of 
Wessex, who did die in that year. If from the few data 
we have to rely on the matter is traced out there can be 
no doubt that the year 681 is too late, and that in all 

of Welsh Historical Records "in " Y Cymmrodor," vol. xi., p. 133 (1892). The 
earliest known version of the "Annales Cambria" is printed in " Y Cymm- 
rodor," vol. ix., pp. 152 — 169, under Mr. E. Phillimore's editorship. The 
portion of the "Annales " dealing with the events up to the Norman Conquest is 
also printed in " Monumenta Historica Britannica," vol. i. (1848), under the 
editorship of Petrie (really under that of Aneurin Owen, the editor of "The 
Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales"). The "Annales Cambriae " were 
also published in the Rolls series in 1861 (edited by Ab Ithel). The "Brut 
y Tywysogion " up to 1066 is also printed in " Monumenta Historica Britan- 
nica," and the whole of it was published (ed. Ab Ithel) in the Rolls series in 
i860. The versions of the "Annales" and the "Brut" in the Rolls series 
are subjected to severe but just criticism by Mr. Phillimore. In 1890, how- 
ever, the text of the "Brut," as transcribed in the "Red Book of Hergest," 
was published in the series of Welsh texts produced at Oxford under the 
editorship of Professor J. Rhys and Mr. Gwenogvryn Evans (Clarendon Press). 
For further information as to the MSS. see Mr. Evans' preface to the " Red 
Book of Hergest," vol. ii., and Aneurin Owen's posthumously printed intro- 
duction to the "Gwentian Chronicle" in "Arch. Cambr. " (1864). The 
so-called "Gwentian" or " Aberpergwm Brut" is printed in " Myv. Arch." 
(vol. ii., pp. 468 — 582), and a copy made by Aneurin Owen from the " Myv, 
Arch." is printed in "Arch. Canib " for 1864. The date of its compilation 
was not earlier than 1550, and it has not the authority of the genuine and 
older " Brut " (see Egerton Phillimore's paper cited above, " Y Cymmrodor," 
xi. 163-168). As to the genealogies appended to "Annales Cambriae " in 
Harl. MS. 3,859, and printed in " Y Cymmrodor," xi., p. 169 ei set/., see 
pp. 132, 138, below. 



128 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

probability it was in or very near to 664 that Cadwaladr 
died. 

If we assume that this date is correct, the period now 
under consideration comprises 402 years, and the scantiness 
of the direct evidence as to what took place may be 
estimated from the fact that there are in the Brut only 
about 200 entries up to the Norman Conquest, and only 
43^ for the 180 years that elapsed from the time the 
Britons lost the crown of Britain to the accession of Rhodri 
Mawr in 844, and that these entries are always brief and 
often obscure. We have, however, some incidental help 
for the construction of this direct evidence from other 
sources, amongst which the Laws of Howel Da and other 
legal treatises must be given the first place,^ for from them 
we can discover with reasonable certainty the structure of 
Welsh society in these times from a legal and economic 
point of view ; and the " Liber Landavensis " ^ properly and 

' Forty-one in " Annales Cambrias " (Phillimore, udi supra). 

- For an account of the legal treatises see below, p. 176 et seo. 

^ ''Liber Landavensis" is the name given to a work supposed to have been 
compiled by Galfrid (Jeffrey or Geoffrey), the brother of Urban, the last 
Bishop of Llandaff mentioned in it. This Galfrid is identified by Mr. 
Gwenogvryn Evans with Geoffrey of Monmouth (see preface to the Oxford 
text mentioned below). It is a chartulary or collection of documents con- 
cerning the Bishops of Llandaff, the endowments of the Church, and events 
connected with the history of the diocese. There are several MSS. of the 
work. The oldest and, as it seems, the original one is the Gwysaney MS. 
(belonging to Mr. P. B, Davies-Cooke, of Gwysaney, Flintshire, and Owston, 
Yorkshire). For information as to the MSS. see the prefaces to the printed texts 
by W. J. Rees and Mr. Gwenogvryn Evans. The book was first printed in 
1840, under the auspices of the Welsh MSS. Society. The Gwysaney text has 
been recently published in the Oxford series. See " The Liber Landavensis 
Lyfr Teilo, or the Ancient Register of the Cathedral Church of Llandaff, from 
MSS. in the Libraries of Hengwrt and of Jesus College, Oxford, with an 
English translation and explanatory notes by the Rev. W. J. Rees, M.A., 
F.S.A., &c. " (Landovery, 1840). This has been, however, superseded by 
the Oxford work, in which the Gwysaney text is diplomatically feproducetl 
under the editorship of Mr. Gwenogvryn Evans, " The Text of the Book of 
Llan Dav, reproduced from the Gwysaney Manuscript by John Gwenogvryn 
Evans, Hon. M.A. Oxon., with the co-operation of John Rhys, ALA., 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 129 

critically used is not to be ignored. From Welsh literature 
(other than the Brut and the Laws) no help is to be 
obtained for this period. 

The task of the historian of Wales has, however, been 
lightened by the excellent work of those who during this 
century have devoted themselves to clearing up the early 
history of England, and it is only by labouring in the hght 
of what they have made known, and according to the 
methods they have adopted, that he can succeed in getting 
at the truth about the story of the Cymry. 

As pointed out above, the break-up of the older Cymric 
kingdom left Wales in a state of complete political dis- 
organisation. Memories of the old kingship and of the 
old bonds undoubtedly survived in theory and sometimes 
reappeared in fact ; but, speaking broadly, the aspect that 
Wales presents' during the succeeding centuries is that of 
a disunited, or very loosely connected, aggregate of clans, 
or petty kingdoms, or lordships engaged in perpetual war- 
fare both among themselves and with English kingdoms 
and English rulers. It would be untrue to state that there 
was absolutely no conception of a collective nation or of a 
united kingdom, but, so far as we can ascertain, on no 
occasion was the whole country effectively under the rule 
of one sovereign. The material is so scanty that it would 
be dangerous to make any general assertion in other than 
a tentative fashion. 

In an endeavour to clear up the history of a country thus 

disorganised one of the first questions that must occur to 

Professor of Celtic in the University of Oxford " (Oxford, 1893). The " Liber 
Landavensis " is also called " Lyfr Teilo " (the Book of Teilo). Teilo is one of 
the principal traditional saints of Wales. He is represented as a cousin of St. 
David's and as Bishop of Llandaff, but he seems to have advanced archiepiscopal 
claims. For an account of him see Smith's " Dicty. Christ. Biog.," sit/> 
nom. The chief authority for his life is a portion of the twelfth century 
MS. with which this note deals. See " Lib. Land." (Oxf. ed.), pp. 97 et seq. 
There is no life of, but there are several references to, Teilo in Rees' " Lives 
of the Cambro-British Saints " (ILandovery, 1853). 

W.P. K 



130 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

one's mind is, what were its divisions for the purposes of 
such government as existed, especially when as in the 
case of Cymru one finds the names attached to various 
areas ancient. We have in the introduction pointed out 
that Wales was in the times of its practical independence 
of the English monarchy undoubtedly divided into can- 
trefs and cymwds. In the laws of Howel Da, which 
are legal treatises once in practical use, the land divisions 
and measurements are ascribed to Dyfnwal Moelmud, who 
was king " before the crown of London and the supremacy 
of this island were seized by the Saxons, and who first 
established good laws in this island . . . and after that 
Howel enacted new laws, and abrogated those of Dyfnwal ; 
yet Howel did not, however, alter the measurement of the 
lands in this island, but continued them as they were left 
by Dyfnwal ; because he was the best measurer." ^ Now 
"the cause of his measuring of the island was that he might 
know the tribute of this island, the number of the miles, 
and its journeys in days."^ What is expressly ascribed 
in the laws to Dyfnwal is the determination of the units 
of measurement and the division of the area called the 
cymwd into smaller parts, having some, though to us not 
quite clear, significance in a tribal system. It is not 
said that Dyfnwal marked out the Cymric land into can- 
trefs and cymwds, but as the cymwd is represented as an 
aggregate of smaller divisions, themselves having reference 
to the prescribed units of measurement, it .seems to be 
implied that he did in fact constitute the division into 
those larger areas. 

The matter is not, however, free from difificult}', for 
if we are to read the text literally as a division of 
the whole of Cymru, the area of each cymwd ought to 
have been of equal superficial extent. In fact, the 

1 " Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales," vol. i., pp. 182-185 (1841, Rolls 
series, ed. A. Owen). 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 131 

cantrefs and cymwds varied very -greatly in size. We 
cannot profess that we have discovered any final solution 
of the difficulty thus created. It would seem that the 
primary purpose of the division was to facilitate the equit- 
able assessment of the food-rents due to the chieftains 
as well as in the first instance to secure a fair apportion- 
ment of a conquered territory among the new settlers. It 
may be that in the time of Dyfnwal the different families 
of Cymric origin took possession by arrangement among 
themselves ; that they, as was natural, made their first 
establishments on the more developed and fertile areas ; 
that each cenedl on whom the liability for customary 
dues fell became associated with a particular area ; that in 
some cases the area came to be called by the name of the 
head of the cenedl at the time of its settlement,^ and in 
others that the name of some pre-existing division survived ; 
and that what Dyfnwal the legislator really did was to 
create a system of measurement and division applicable 
roughly to an established order of possession with a view 
to making the incidence and rendering of the customary 
food-rents fair and easy. However this may be, it is 
certain, that in the tenth century Cymru was divided 
into cantrefs and cymwds, with boundaries ascertained 
well enough for practical purposes, and that the division 
was then deemed to be ancient. 

Dyfnwal Moelmud is generally supposed to have reigned 
about 4CXD years before Christ. This seems due to the place 
given to him by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his line of 
British kings. According to Geoffrey he gained the sceptre 
of Britain after a civil war that followed the slaying of 
Porrex, and on his death his sons Belinus and Brennius 
became kings of Britain.- If we were to assume this to 
be true, the date of Dyfnwal's flourishing and legislation 

' £.^., Meirionytl. Meirion was a son of Cuneda. 
2 '« British History," book ii., cc. i6 and 17 ; book iii., c. i. 

K 2 



132 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

might be about B.C. 400.^ But there is nothing to support 
Geoffrey's narrative, while there is credible evidence that 
about the time of Cuneda (who, as leader of the Cymry, 
conquered Wales) there was a Dyfnwal Moelmud who, 
whether or not he was ever head-king of the Cymry, or 
simply a member of a ruling family, was so closely con- 
nected with the line of Cuneda, that his name may have well 
become associated with legislation over Cymric territory. 
It fortunately happens that there are several pedigrees 
appended to the earliest MS. of the " Annales Cambri^e," and 
as they are undoubtedl}' old, and came into being at a time 
when every one's genealogy was most religiousl}- preserved 
and remembered as a kind of title-deed to his status in the 
then existing legal and social system, we may with a high 
degree of confidence look upon them as in substance 
accurate.- The name of Dyfnwal Moelmud occurs in 
Pedigree X. He was son of Garbaniaun, and grandson of 
Coel Hen, whose daughter was Cuned"a's wife, and his 
pedigree was traced "to Beli et Anna."-^ He may therefore 
have been a contemporary of Cuneda's, and may have 
survived during the lives of one or two generations of his 
descendants. Save so far as we may infer it from the 
statement in the Welsh laws, that he was king before the 
loss of the crown of Britain, there is nothing to show that 
he was king of all the Cymry ; and in fact the text does not 

' Geoffrey's Brennius took the city of Rome, and .seems to be meant for 
Brennus, who, according to current computation, in K. C. 390, did capture llie 
city and besiege the citadel. Mommsen, " History of Rome," i., p. 366 
(English translation). 

- " The annales and genealogies in their present form show marks of having 
been composed in the last half of the tenth century " (E. Philliniore, "V 
Cymmrodor," xi., p. 144). " But the date of the M.S. is upwards of a century 
later than that of the composition of the Annales and Welsh tjenealogies " 
(ibid., p. 145). See also "The Welsh Pedigrees," a paper by Henry F. J. 
Vaughan, B.A., S.C.E., printed in '* Y Cymmrodor," x. 72 (1890). 

^ " Y Cymmrodor," xi., p. 174. As the pedigree is not very accessible to 
the student we rejiroduce it : — 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 133 



necessarily give him the position of a head-king or gwledig ; 
and there is nothing inconsistent between what is stated in 
the laws, and the inference that he was a king of some 
territory subjecL '^^ Cuneda, and that he was authorised 
by the gwledig, upon the conquest of Wales, to settle the 
affairs of the newly-won lands. This conjecture accords 
well with the ascertained facts. There were in all proba- 
bility earlier divisions of Wales, and Ave need not assume 
that they were entirely superseded by Dyfnwal's work. 
His main object was evidently, as we have said, to make an 
arrangement for the fair imposition of the food-rents of the 
occupiers of Cymric land. Under his system, confirmed 
by Howel, the families in each cymwd were liable for the 
same food-rent, that is, the same amount was levied on each 
cymwd, irrespectively of the number of the families or its 
size ; and as the occupied land varied very greatly in 
fertility and productiveness, the operation of practical 



[M]orcant. 
map. Coledauc. 
map. Morcaiit. 
bulc. 
map. Cincar. 

braut. 
map. Branhen. 
map. Dnmngual. 

moilmut. 
map. Garbani 
aiin. 
map. Coyl hen. 
map. Guotepauc. 
map. Tec ma- 

. nt. 
map. Teu- 

hant. 
map. Telpii- 
. il. 
The map before Guotepauc should 
Guotepauc (now Godebog) was Coyl 
The patronymic of Dumngual Moilmut 



[X] 



map. Vrb. 

an. 
map. Grat. 
map. lume- 

tel. 
map. Riti- 

girn. 
map. Oude- 

cant. 
map. Ou- 

tigir. 
map. Ebiud. 
map. Eudof. 
map. Eudelen. 
map. Aballac. 
map, Bali e( anna. 



, says Mr. Phillimore, be cancelled. 
.'s epithet. The pedigree is Northern, 
seems Goidelic ; see above, p. 24. 



134 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

causes may well have led to great difference in the relative 
extents of the rent-paying units. 

In the "Chronicles" and the "Liber Landavensis" we find 
individuals represented as kings or princes of areas larger 
than cantrefs, to which names other than those of the 
cantrefs are given. These may have been, probably were, 
aggregates of the smaller divisions. They represented 
lands over the inhabitants of which certain regal or princely 
families descended from, or assumed to be descended from, 
Cuneda, or it may be the descendants of other founders 
of ancient and pure-blooded tribes of the Cymric race 
exercised a tribal sway, and possessed customary privileges. 
In the " Brut" we find mention of the following areas for the 
most part in terms implying that they were kingdoms: — 
Gwyned, Powys, Keredigion, Dyfed, Morgannwg, Gwent, 
Brecheiniog, Buattt, Ystrad Towi,^ Rhuvoniog, Kidweli, 
Gwyr, Mon. 

We need not assume the list to be exhaustive. There 
were very likely other kingdoms or principalities which do 
not happen to be mentioned. The names of other districts 
are certainly to be found {e.g., Gwentiwg, ILeyn, Mcironyd), 
but not in terms necessarily suggesting they were under 
separate sovereign families. 

It is worthy of notice that before Rhodri's time there 
is no mention of a king of Deheubarth (ordinarily used as 
equivalent to South Wales), though the word Deheubarth wyr 
(men of Deheubarth) occurs once. 

To the rulers of these larger areas the names " brenin " 
(king) and " tywysog"- (prince) are applied. In the earlier 
times the former title is liberally accorded. The king is 
usually described as king of a particular district, e.g., 

' Ab Ithel in the Rolls edition of the "Brut" translates this as the " Vale of 
Tovvi," but it practically means district of the Towi. Ystrad literally means 
strand, "strath." 

" See s.a. 856 : " Y bu uav6 lonathal tywyssawc Abergeleu." 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 135 

Gwgaun, son of Meurug, king of Keredigion ; ^ but some of 
the chieftains are described as " king of the Britons." - Now 
later writers proceed on the theory that Cymru was divided 
into three principal parts, Gwyne^, Deheubarth, and 
Powys, with three royal residences — Aberffraw in the first 
Dinefwr in the second, and Mathrafal in the third, and an 
over-lordship is ascribed to the king of Gwyned. There 
is nothing in the " Chronicles " absolutely inconsistent with 
this, but on the other hand there is nothing directly to 
support it ; but some of the later legal treatises accord a 
pre-eminence to the king of Gwyned, and many isolated 
facts tend to support this view, so far as the kingdoms of 
Deheubarth and Powys are concerned f but there seems no 
evidence proving with certainty that the regal families of 
South-eastern Wales, which was divided into the kingdoms 
of Morgannwg, Gwent, Brecheiniog, and Bualtt, generally 
acknowledged the over-lordship of Gwyned. There is, 
however, no improbability in the view that the chieftains 
of Cymru at one time regarded themselves as forming a 
kind of hierarchy of kings ;* and certainly the organisation 
of each kingdom, as described in the codes, seems to involve 
a gradation of lordships very nearly resembling a feudal 
system. But though the supremacy of Gwyned and the 
subordination of one ruler to another, in some settled manner 
grouping all Wales into a collective nation, may have been 
a legal first principle, the actual facts, as gathered or inferred 
from the "Chronicles," hardly seem to square with the theory, 

1 " Brut," J. a. 871. "Ann. Cam.," j.a. 871. 

- £.£., "Brut," s.a. 998 : "MareduS, son of Ovvain, the most celebrated 
King of the Britons." 

^ Mr. Seebohm adopts the theory. "Tribal System in Wales," pp. 134 — 

139- 

■* Cf. the case of Ireland, where there seem to have been recognised an 
Ard-ri Erend and three classes of subordinate kings. O'Sullivan's Introduction 
to O'Curry's "Lectures on the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish," 
pp. ccxxix-xxxi. See also Ginnell's "The Brehon Laws " (London, 1894), 
pp. 63 e( seq. 



136 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

and what we do find is an aggregate of small states under 
separate kings or ruling families continually quarrelling 
among themselves. 

The period now under consideration— that from the 
death of Cadwaladr, in 664, to the Norman Conquest — 
may itself be conveniently divided at the accession of 
Rhodri Mawr. For the one hundred and eight)' years that 
elapsed from the loss of the crown of Britain to 844, when 
Rhodri became chief king of the Britons, we know little of 
what took place in Wales, and all we can gather from 
trustworth)' sources is the names of certain kings and 
battles, and the general conclusion that the limits of the 
Welsh area were further contracted. 

According to Caradog of ILancarvan, Ivor, son "of Alan, 
king of Armorica (who becomes strangely confounded 
with Ine, king of Wessex), succeeded Cadwaladr on his 
death in 681, and reigned till 720. Then Rhodri Molwynog, 
son of Edwal Ywrch, became " King of the Brytains," and 
survived till 750, and was followed by his son, Conan 
Tindaethw}', who continued chief king till 817, when he 
died (after chasing his brother Howel out of Mon in that 
year), leaving a daughter, Esyllht, married to Merf}'n Frych 
ab Gwriad. Merfyn and his wife took possession of the 
kingship, and Merfyn reigned till 84F. In that }'ear (" as 
some do write") he was killed in a battle at Cettett between 
the Welsh and the Mercians under Burchred, and then his 
son Rhodri succeeded. This account is usually followed 
by Welsh historians, but it is barely credible. For a period 
of one hundred and fifty-three years {i.e., 664 to 817), only 
four chief kings (one following the other immediately) are 
assigned, and Conan is made to reign nearly seventy years. 

Caradog appears to have been trying, very likely honestly 
enough, to represent a continuity in the devolution of the 
Cymric over-lordship that had had no existence except in 
the imagination of later rulers and those who were connected 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 137 

with them as bards and genealogists. The "Brut," while not 
absolutely inconsistent with the view of Caradog, can hardly 
be described as entirely supporting it. It says that after 
Cadwaladr, Ivor, son of Alan, king of ILydaw, which is called 
little Britain, reigned not as king, but as a chief or prince,^ and 
after him Rhodri Molwynog reigned. The entries down to 
844, when it records the death of Merfyn Frych, are very 
brief Rhodri Molwynog died in 754. The earliest reference 
to a Kynan is in 812, when it is recorded that a battle took 
place between Howel and Kynan, and that the latter was 
beaten, and three years later (815) Howel expelled Kynan 
from M6n." Then, in 817, Howel was "a second time" 
driven from Mon, and Cynon (who, we may fairly assume, 
was identical with Kynan) died, and the Saxons ravaged 
the mountains of Eryri, and took the kingdom of Rhuvoniog.'' 
No mention is made of Esyllht, but it is stated that 
Merfyn Frych died in 844. We may therefore look upon 
the existence of Ivor, Rhodri Molwynog, Kynan, and Merfyn 
Frych as proved, and we may believe that they were very 
important chieftains of the Cymry in the time after the 
death of Cadwaladr and before Rhodri Mawr's accession. 
But there are other kings mentioned, such as Caradog, 
king of Gwyned, Maredud and Rein, kings of Dyfed, 
Arthen, king of Keredigion, and Cadbii, king of Powys.* 
To Rhodri Molwynog, indeed, the title of " brenin y 
Brytanyeit " is accorded, but the deaths of Conan and 
Merfyn are mentioned as if they were simply kings of 
districts ; and we cannot avoid noticing that if Gwyned 

' The words in the text of the "Brat" (Oxford edition, p. 257) are " ac nyt 
megys brenhin namyn megys pennaeth neu tywyssauc.'' They are important 
as showing clear recognition of the change in the position of the Cymry in the 
island, which had been brouglit about by the events that led up to the death of 
Cadwaladr and the loss of "the crown of Britain." 

2 "Brut," j.r?. 815. 

3 " Brut," s.a. 817. 

* See under the years 798, 796, S07, and 808, "Ann. Cam.," 798, 807, 808. 



138 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

had at that time a practical pre-eminence, it is strani^e that 
Caradog (a king of that part of Wales) should find no 
place in the succession of kings of all Wales as traced 
by Caradog of H.ancarvan. 

The sources of information by means of which we may 
check or correct the traditional or usually adopted account 
of this period are not limited, however to the Chronicles. 
The first of the pedigrees appended to the MS. of the 
" Annales Cambriae," edited by Mr. E. Phillimore, is that of 
Owain, the son of Howel Da, and great-grandson of 
Rhodri Mawr, and it carries back his genealogy a very long 
way- It is a genuinely old compilation, and however much 
we may doubt, or rather be in a state of indifference as to 
the more remote stages, yet if we bear in mind the legal 
structure and general complexion of the community in 
which it was produced, it would be an excessive display of 
the sceptical spirit to deny its accuracy for many genera- 
tions, especially as there is evidence from many sources 
that most of the nearer ancestors of Owain whom it 
discloses really lived and played their parts among the 
Cymry in a sequence of events that is not inconsistent with 
the order of the names in the pedigree in question.^ 

According to this pedigree, the names of the successors 
of Cadwaladr were : — lutgual, Rotri, Cinnan, Etthil, Mer- 
min, Rotri (Mawr).- lutgual is probably the Idwal Ywrch 
of Caradog ; the first Rotri is evidently Rhodri Molwynog, 
king of the Britons, who, according to the " Brut," died in 
754 ; Cinnan seems to be the Kynan or Cynon of the "Brut," 
who fought with Howel in 812 and 815, and died in 817, 
and Caradog's Conan Tindaethwy ; Etthil, daughter of 

' In Mr. Pliilliiiiore's opinion, "up to tlie date when all Welsh records 
necessarily became more or less fabulous, these genealogies have every claim 
to rank beside the ' Annales ' and the ' Saxon (lenealogies ' as a valuable 
historical authority." " Y Cymmrodor," ix., p. 149 (1888). 

- This important pedigree deserves the most careful study. It is printed in 
the preface to Aneurin Owen's " Welsh Laws," etc. (vol. i., Preface, p. xiv., 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 139 

Cinnan, is the Esyllht who, in his account, was married 
to Merfyn Frych ; Mermin, son of Etthil, is probably 
identical with the Merfyn Frych whose death is assigned 
by the Brut to the year 844, and the Mermin whose death 
is mentioned in the Annales as taking place in the same 
year. The second Rotri is Rhodri Mawr. 

We may, then, take it that the existence of Idwal Ywrch, 
Rhodri Molwynog, Conan Tindaethwy, Etthil, Merfyn 
or Mermin Frych is confirmed by the pedigree, and that 
they were descendants of Cadwaladr ; but the interval 
between 754, when Rhodri Molwynog died, and 817 or 
^16, when Conan died, is very long. A Caradog, king of 
Gwyned, is stated to have been killed by the Saxons in 798.^ 
He may have been a son of Rhodri Molwynog, and have 



note). We reproduce it as edited by Mr. 
vol. ix., pp. 169, 170). 

[0]we« map. iguel. 

map. catell. 

map. Rotri. 

map. mermin. 

map. etthil merch. 
cinnan. 

map. rotri. 

map. lutgual. 

map. Catgualart. 

map. CatgoUauw. 

map. Cat man. 

map. Jacob. 

map. Beli. 

map. Run. 

map. Mailcun. 

map. CatgoIauM. 
lauhir. 

map. Eniau« girt. 

map. Cuneda. 

map. ^Etern. 

map. Pat«-n pefrut. 

map. Tacit. 
' " Brut," j.fl!. 798. "Caratauc 
" Ann.," s.a. 798. 



E. Phillimore in "YCymmrodor" 

map. Cein. 

map. Guorcein. 

map. doli. 

map. Guordoli. 

map. Dumn. 

map. Gurdu;««. 

map. Amguoloyt. 

map. A«guerit. 

map. Oumu«. 

map. Dubun. 

map. Brithguein. 

map. Eugein. 

map. Aballac. 

map. Amalech qui fuit. 

beli magni films. 

et anna mater ejus. 

quaw dic«<«t ej^e 

[co«so. 

brina MARINE. 

uirginis mat;7s. 

d'ni n'ri ih'u xp'i. 



rex guenedote apud Saxones iugulatur," 



140 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

been omitted by the compiler of the genealogy, but there 
can be no certainty about the question. Nor can we speak 
positively as to the district over which this line held sway, 
though the mention in the Brut and Annales of kings 
of various districts,^ who do not appear to have been descen- 
dants of Cadwaladr, leads us to the opinion that lutgual 
and his immediate successors were rulers of Gwyned. 

In addition to the scanty information we have as to the 
names of these kings, we know, from the Welsh and other 
sources, that there was almost continual warfare between the 
Cymry and their English neighbours, and very frequently 
among themselves, and that, as a result, the Cymric area 
was again diminished. 

It is with the name of Offa of Mercia that the further 
and definite lessening of the Cymric land is chiefly 
associated. He began his reign in 757.- Of his deeds 
during its earlier years little is recorded, but later on he 
engaged in seemingly fierce contests with the Welsh. In 
776 the destruction of the South Wales men took place,'' 
and some years after he pushed over the Severn, " and 
spoiled the Britons in summer time."* The king of Powys 
was driven from Pengwern (Shrewsbury), till then the 
capital of his realm, and the boundaries of Mercia were 
practically carried to the Wye. It was probably about 
this time that the Mercian king caused the earthwork 
known as Clawd" Ofifa. or Offa's dyke, to be constructed. 
Speaking roughly, this work extended from the estuary 
of the Dee to the mouth of the Wye. Whether it was 
intended for military purposes or simply as a visible mere 

' E.g., "Arthgen rex cereticiaun," " Regin rex demetorum ; et catel, 
pouis moriuntur," " Ann.," s.a. 807, 808. 

- " Dictionary of National Biography," stil> nom. Offa. 

•* "Hrut,"j'.rt 776. " Vastatio Brittonum dexteralium apud Offa," "Ann.," 
s.a. 778. 

■• "Brut," s.a. 779. C/. " Vastatio Britlouum cum Offa in estate," "Ann.," 
s.a. 784. 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 141 

between England and Wales, it became recognised as the 
boundary line of Cymru. The dyke is not mentioned in 
the Oxford text of the " Brut," though in one of the MSS. 
on which the Rolls edition is based, it is stated that Offa 
caused the dyke to be made to enable him more easily to 
withstand the attacks of his enemies. Probably this is a 
late addition to the Brut, but the making of the dyke is 
mentioned by Asser,^ and its existence is an indisputable 
fact. Portions of it were a few years ago noticeable. In 
Radnorshire at the beginning of this century its remains 
were " almost as fresh as if cut yesterday, excepting the 
edges, which are clothed with a fine verdure." - 

The consolidation of the Teutonic kingdoms in England 
under Ecgbryht (the first Saxon king who called himself 
Rex Anglorum) in the early years of the ninth century had 
an immediate effect upon the fortunes of the remnant 
of the Britons. In his reign the Cornish people were 
subdued, and henceforth, though they maintained some 
kind of separate organisation, they never successfully threw 
off the yoke of Wessex. After the reduction of Mercia 
and Northumbria, it seems clear that he extorted the 
submission of the Cymric princes'^ — the English certainl}- 
made temporarily successful invasions into the heart of 
the Cymric land.* 

' Asser, M. H. B. 471. 

- Williams's " History of Radnorshire," 58. See also Pryse's " Descriptio " 
prefixed to "Caradocof Lancarvan,"ed. 1584; also Guest's "OriginesCelticce," 
vol. ii., p. 273 ; and Longueville Jones's article in ^rc/i. Cambr. (3rd series, 
vol. ii., pp. 1-3, and pp. 151-4) ; also Earle's paper, Arch. Cambr., 3rd 
series, vol. iii., pp. 196-209. Most of what is known about the dyke is well 
stated by Mr. A. N. Palmer in his paper, " Offa's and Wat's Dykes," in 
*'Y Cymmrodor," vol, xii., p. 65(1897). ^ Freeman, N. C. 1., p. 42. 

^ In 817, "The Saxons ravaged the mountains of Eryri and took the kingdom 
of Rhuvoniog, " "Brut," s.a. 

In 818, " A fight took place in Mona, called the action of Llanvaes. " 

In 819, " Kenulf ravaged the kingdoms of Dyfed." 

In 823, the Castle of Deganwy was destroyed by the Saxons, and then the 
Saxons took tlie kingdom of Powys into their possession. "Brut," s.a. 823. 



142 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

The reign of Ecgbryht marks a distinct step in the develop- 
ment of the Enghsh monarchy ; but just as the Enghsh 
state was attaining to considerable power, its own existence, 
as well as that of all the kingdoms of the island, was 
threatened by the formidable invasions of the Northmen 
or Danes, who were still outside the pale of Christianity. 
Sporadic incursions had taken place before the accession 
of Ecgbryht. The Welsh Chronicle says that 790 was the 
year of Christ when the Pagans first came to Ireland.^ At 
the beginning of the ninth century their raids became 
more frequent and more effective ; but shortly before his 
death Ecgbryht defeated the invaders and the Cornish Britons 
(who had joined them) in a great battle at Hengestendun 
in Cornwall.- 

Freeman makes the Danish invasions of England to fall 
into three periods — one of mere plunder, one of settlement, 
and one of political conquest. The first extended from the 
first appearance of the Scandinavians in the later years of 
the eighth century to 855 ; the second, from that year to 
897 ; and the third from 980 to 1016, when Cnut com- 
menced to reign as king of the English.'' In the first 
period the Welsh seem to have suffered much as the 
English did, though to a less extent. As to the .second 
period, there was no large settlement of Northmen in 
Cymru.* As to the third, the Danish Conquest did not 
materially alter the relations of the Welsh princes to the 
government of England. However much the people settled 
on the coast of W'ales may have suffered from the Danish 
raids, it seems clear enough that for the Cymry, as a whole, 
the arrest of the growth of the English monarch}' and 
the incoming of fresh settlers was an advantage. The 

' C/. " Ann.," s.d. 796. 

- In 836, Freeman, " Noinian (Jonquest,"' i. 43. 

■* Freeman, itot supra, 

* See above, pp. 27, 35. 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 143 

incursions of the Northmen assisted the preservation of prac- 
tical independence by the Welsh nation for a long time, and 
by distracting the English gave an opportunity for the opera- 
tion of forces which were slowly tending to the consolidation 
of the little British kingdoms beyond the dyke. Probably 
it was due to the absorption of the English in the conflicts 
of the ninth century that Rhodri Mawr found it possible to 
extend his dominion over a very large part of Wales, and 
make his house the really predominant power there. 

While Merfyn Frych was still reigning, some cessation 
of Danish attack enabled Burchred, king of Mercia, to turn 
his attention to the Welsh. In 844 he engaged and defeated 
them at a place called Cetytt in the Brut ; Merfyn was 
slain, and was succeeded by his son Rhodri, who came to 
be known as " the Great " (Mawr). With his accession we 
reach ground somewhat surer. 

By the death of Merfyn he had become head of the 
line of Gwyned. Afterwards, by his marriage with a 
daughter of Meurig ab Dyfnwalton, he became lord of 
Keredigion and Ystrad Towi on the death of her brother 
Gwgan ; ^ and he is said to have become possessed of Powys 
through his grandmother. Nest, sister and heiress of Congen 
ab Cadett, king of Powys.- Whether Rhodri ever directly 
ruled over Powys is not clear,'^ but it is certain that his 
dominions included the rest of Wales except Dyfed, 
Morganwg, Gwent, and the principalities roughly corre- 
sponding to the modern Brecknockshire and Radnor. It 
is, of course, possible that he may have exercised some kind 
of over-lordship even over these territories. We know so 
little of Rhodri that it is not very plain why he came to be 

' See Jesus Coll. MS. 20: " Cymmrodor, " viii. 87; Harleian MS. 3859; 
" Cymmrodor," ix., p. 180 : Pedigree xxvi. 

■^ The death of a CadeH, king of Powys, is recorded in the "Brut " s.a 
808. See Pedigree xxvii. in " Y Cymmrodor," ix., p 181. 

^ In 823 the Saxons took possession of Powys. " Brut," s.a. The " Brut '' 
is silent as to Powys from this time to the Norman Conquest. 



144 T^^E WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

called the Great,^ unless it be from the fact that he ruled 
over an area much larger than any then recent predecessor, 
and that this, coupled with military successes of which we 
have no sure evidence, made him an exceptionally powerful 
king among his contemporaries. He had continual con- 
flicts with the Mercians and the Danes. According to Irish 
authorities, he slew a Danish chief called Horm in 855, 
The end of his reign was clouded in misfortune ; for in 876 
he sustained a great defeat at the hands of the English, and 
was obliged to flee to Ireland. Returning in the following 
}'ear, he and his brother Gwriad were slain by the Saxons." 

Great importance is attached by the later writers on 
Welsh history to Rhodri's reign, for with it, or its con- 
clusion, is associated the division of Wales into the three 
kingdoms we have mentioned — Gw\med, Powys, and 
Deheubarth. Some say that Rhodri made the division 
during his lifetime, but the earlier authorities attribute the 
division to his sons after his death. The text of Caradog 
of ILancarvan says that Rhodri had divers sons, as Anarawd, 
to whom he gave Aberffraw with North Wales ; Cadelt, the 
second son, to whom he gave Dinevwr with South Wales, al.so 
took Powys land by force from his brethren after the death of 
Merfyn, the third son, to whom his father had given the same. 

Powel, in his note, amplifies this statement in substance 
thus:'' Rhodri was the undoubted owner and possessor of 
all Wales ; * Gwyned he had through Esyttt,^ his mother ; 

' This is a convenient place for our calling attention to the excellent 
biographies of Welsh ja-inces in the " Dictionary of National Biogra]ihv.' 
They deserve the attention of all students of Welsh history. Most of them 
are written by Professor Tout, Professor J. E. Lloyd, or Mr. l.leufer 
Thomas. 

- "Brut," s.a. 877. "Ann. Camb." 877. According to the latter, (jwriad 
was Rhodri's son. 

•' "Car. of Han.." p. 35. 

'' This is certainly not true if the term Wales is used to cover the present 
thirteen counties. 

" Seemingly the Etthil of the pedigree ciied above is meant. 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 145 

Demetia, or South Wales, came to him by his wife, 
daughter of Meurigab Dyfnwal, king of Keredigion ; Powys 
he had by Nest, his grandmother. These three dominions 
he appointed under their meares and bounds, with 
a princeHe house in every of them, which he named 
"y tair talaeth," and left the same unto three of his 
sons, Anarawd, Cadett, and Merfyn, which were called 
" y tri thywysog taleithiog " (the three diademed princes).^ 
The historians of Wales generally accept this account, often 
speak as if the division amounted to a splitting up of all 
Cymru, and deplore it as an impolitic act. 

There is, however, something wrong in the aspect it gives 
to the division of Rhodri's dominions, whether it took place 
during his life or after his death. Gwyned and Powys (as 
we have seen) were separate kingdoms before Rhodri's time. 
So also were Dyfed and Keredigion, as we know from the 
Welsh chronicles, which are, however, silent as to any divi- 
sion by Rhodri.- The principalities or kingdoms of the south- 
eastern part of Wales — Morgannwg, Gwent, Brecheiniog, 
Buallt, and smaller areas — clearly preserved separate orga- 
nisations. The evidence of Asser confirms this.' In the " Life 
of yElfred" he says that King Hemeid,with all the inhabitants 
of Demetia, compelled by the violence of Rhodri's six sons,*^ 
submitted to Alfred. Howel also, son of Rhys king of 

' Giraldus, writing more than 300 years after Rhodri's death, gives the 
tripartite division as ancient, and says that Rhodri was the cause of tlie 
division. " Descriptio," i. c. 2. 

^ S.a. 796, we hear of Maredud, kingof Dyfed ; s.a. 798, of Caradog, king of 
Gwyned ; s.a. 808, of Rein, king of Dyfed, and Cadett, king of Powys ; s.a. 
819, of kingdoms of Dyfed ; s.a. 817, of the kingdom of Rhuvoniog ; s.a. 823, 
of the kingdom of Powys; s.a. 848, of Ithel, king of Gwent; s.a. 856, of 
lonathal, prince of Abergeleu ; s.a. 871, of Gwgawn ab Meurug, king of Kere- 
digion and tlie Vale of Towi. 

•^ We are aware that the worth and genuineness of Asser's " Life " has been 
seriously attacked, and give the extract with this caution. 

■* We can only find four mentioned in the " Brut." See the genealogical 
tible at the end of this chapter. 

W.P. L 



146 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

Gleguising, and Brocmail and Fernmail, sons of Meurig, 
kings of Gwent, compelled b\- the violence and tyranny of 
Earl Ethered of the Mercians, sought his protection ; while 
EHsed, son of Teudyr, king of Brecknock, compelled by the 
force of the same sons of Rhodri, sought the government of 
^iilfred. Now, of course, it is quite possible that Rhodri, 
after adding Keredigion and Ystrad Towi to the parcels of 
his immediate dominions, had obtained some kind of sub- 
mission from the kings or princes of the smaller areas here 
mentioned, and that he was recognised as king of all the 
Britons or all Cymru. But it is certain that he was not 
possessed of all the Cymric land. He was king of Gwyned, 
with seemingh' Aberffraw as his home demesne, and of 
Deheubarth, with Dinevwr as its chief seat ; but for the 
notion that Deheubarth was equivalent to what we now call 
South Wales there is no warrant at all, and no kitigdoni of 
Deheubarth is referred to in the chronicles, though the word 
Deheubarthw}'r is used. Dinevwr seems to have been the 
palace of the king of Keredigion and Ystrad Towi, which 
roughl)' corresponded to the present Cardiganshire and 
the greater part of tiie modern Carmarthenshire. Neither 
Kidweli nor Gw}'r (answering to Gower in Glamorganshire) 
which are both mentioned in the Brut, are shown with an)' 
certainty to have been part of Rhodri's dominions as matter 
of right ; while we find that Dyfed, Morgannwg, Gwent, and 
Brecheiniog, and probably other smaller areas, were under 
other rulers. Some time afterwards the line of Dyfed 
came to an end, and the district was incorporated in 
some fashion, at any rate temporarily, into the kingdom of 
Dinevwr or Deheubarth ; but its subsequent histor\' — its 
rapid development into a county palatine, without an\' 
apparent violent breach of the continuity of its story — 
seems to show the survival of a separate organisation. 
Morganwg, Brecheiniog, and Gwent remained as " separate 
entities," if we ma)- use a modern phrase, and b\' a gradual 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 147 

process became counties under the English or Norman 
system. 

Though there is no early authority on the question, and 
though the complexion given to the transaction by Caradog 
is probably wrong, yet there is ground for thinking that 
something unusual did take place in regard to the devolution 
of the regal rights upon the death of Rhodri. The Cymric 
kingship was originally, and probably down to a late time, 
not a personal monarchy, but a tribal or family chieftaincy.' 
The so-called king was the chief of the royal family 
(penkenedl) in whom the tribal sovereignty was vested. 
If we may assume that the laws of Howel Da apply to 
earlier times, then we should expect that on Rhodri's death 
Anarawd, the eldest son, would become chief (if he had the 
necessary legal qualifications of a penkenedl) without any 
division of the family dominions of a permanent character, 
though Cadett (t'.g'.) might be made arglwyd (lord) of a 
particular district of the family lands for reasons of con- 
venience. Then on the death of Anarawd one would 
expect his eldest son or some other member of the 
cenedl (kindred) to become chief and rule over the whole 
dominion. In fact, however, the devolution of Rhodri's 
possessions was different. Anarawd became king of 
Gwyned", and handed it on to his son Idwal ; and Cadett 
became king of Deheubarth, and was succeeded by his 
son Howel. Merfyn does not seem to have transmitted 
any claims to Powys. The two former undoubtedly founded 
the princely lines of Gwyned and Deheubarth. The facts, 
therefore, seem to show that the succession to Rhodri's 
dominions did not proceed in the ordinary way ; and, 
perhaps, what took place may have marked a stage in the 
change from a tribal chieftaincy to a territorial sovereignty. 
Upon the death of Rhodri his eldest son Anarawd, as we 
have said, succeeded to Gwyned ; Cadett to Deheubarth, 

' See below, pp. 202-3. 

L 2 



148 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

and perhaps Merfyn to Powys. Of the south-eastern 
principalities we learn practically nothing on trustworthy 
authority. No grave internal troubles seem to have occurred 
during Anarawd's long reign of thirty-eight years. In 
880, three years after his accession, there was an English 
invasion, and Anarawd defeated the Saxon enemy " for 
God to avenge Rhodri." * The battle was fought near 
Conway, and came to be referred to as " Dial Rhodri " 
(Rhodri's revenge). 

During the later years of the ninth century the house 
of Rhodri was undoubtedl)' the predominant power 
in Wales. We have seen how the kings outside the pale 
of Rhodri's possessions were compelled by the oppression 
of his " six sons " to seek the protection of ./Elfred the 
Great ; but now Anarawd himself, with a brother (seemingly 
Cadett of Deheubarth), abandoned close relations with 
the Northumbrians and came into the great king's pre- 
sence and sought his friendship. He was received by the 
king with honour as his son by the Bishop's confirmation, 
and was presented with many gifts.- Probably Anarawd 
at first pursued a policy of friendship and alliance with 
the people of Northern Britain as against the Mercians 
and West-Saxons, as he did with the Danes for a time. 
His submission to Alfred, and that of his brother, no 
doubt paved the way to that usually friendly relation 
which existed between the chief rulers of Wales and 
the kings of the house of /Elfred during the greater 
part of the tenth century. We know not when Anarawd 
and yElfred met ; not even whether it was before or after 
a temporary quarrel with CadeH which led, in 893, to an 
inroad into Keredigion and the Vale of Towi by the North- 
Welsh prince. Probably, however, the meeting took place 



1 " Brut,"' s.a. 877 ; "Ann. Cam.," 877. 
- Asser, M. H. l;., p. 488. 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 149 

after the defeat of the Danes under Hasting by yElfred 
in Sgy} 

The remaining years of Anarawd's reign were quite 
barren of any events of importance. He died in 915, and 
was succeeded by his son Idwal Voel. Cadelt had pre- 
deceased his brother, and Howel afterwards called f)a 
(the good) became king of Deheubarth, and later on of 
Gwyned as well. Under the rule of Idwal and Howel the 
Cymry enjoyed unwonted peace.'' They were contem- 
poraries of Eadward the Elder and ^thelstan, and thus 
lived when the power of the house of ^^Ifred was at its 
greatest height. Howel throughout his whole career 
remained '^ on peaceful terms with the English court, and 
so far as we know (except in regard to a dispute with 
Morgan Hen of Morgannwg) with the other Welsh princes. 
Both Idwal and Howel did homage to the English kings, 
and seem to have behaved as faithful vassals. 

To appreciate the significance of the isolated facts which 
we can gather concerning Idwal and Howel it is necessary 
to bear in mind the change that had been wrought in 
England by the settlement of the Danes. By the peace of 
Wedmore England north of the Thames had been divided 
by a line roughly drawn from north to south from the 
Ribble to the upper valley of the Thames. This involved 
the division of the ancient and important kingdom of 
Mercia into an English and Danish Mercia. The former 

1 Green, " Conquest of England," pp. 172-3, 183 ; " Eng. Chron.," ^.(7. 897. 
The fact, however, that Gwyned and Deheubarth escaped the ravages of the 
Northmen in 894 suggests that the house of Rhodri was then in alliance with 
them. 

- In the " Brut " only four battles are mentioned between 914 and 948 : — 
914. The people of Dublin (i.e.. Norsemen) made a descent on M6n. 
919. A battle took place at Dinas Newyd. (Ann. Cam., 921.) 
935. The battle of Brun took place. (Ann. Cam., 938.) 
944. Ystrat Clut (Strath Clyde) was devastated by the Saxons. (Ann. 
Cam., 946.) 
3 At any rate, after the first five years of his reign. 



150 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

was a stretch of country from the Ribble to the Thames 
and the Avon, and it seems clear that it was one ot 
yElfred's objects to separate the Danes from the Welsh 
b\- this English Mercia. At the beginning of the tenth 
centur)' this remnant of the older Mercia was ruled b\' the 
Ealdorman ^-F.thelred and his wife /Ethelflaed, and after 
the death of the former, b}' the latter, the celebrated " Lad)' 
of Mercia." 

No marked change took place in regard to the Welsh 
principalities during the latter part of the ninth or earlier 
part of the tenth century. There is' nothing to show 
that either Idwal Voel or Howel extended his dominions 
over Morgannwg, Brecheiniog, Buattt, or Gwent. Of Powys 
we hear nothing, but it ma}' be presumed with probabilit}' 
that the lordships into which, as we gather from later 
sources, it was divided were in some sort of subjection to 
Mercia. As to Deheubarth, it is likely that Howel became 
possessed of D}'fed, for he married Elen, daughter of 
Loumarc ab Hymeid, king of D\'fed. This H\'meid was 
.seeming!)' the king of Dyfed who sought the protection 
of iElfred.^ We hear no more of kings of D)'fed, though 
it seems to have kept a separate character. On the east 
Howel extended his rule peaceabl)' over Kidweli and Gw)'r, 
and thus became the immediate neighbour of Morgan 
Hen (king of Morgannwg), for we find that the undoubted 
pos.sessions of Maredud ab Owain — the grandson of Howel 
Da — included tho.se two districts in addition to Keredigion 
and Ystrad Towi." Gwyned certainly included Mon, the 
present shire of Carnarvon, and part of Merionethshire, and 

' See abi)ve, y. 145. In pedigree ii. appended to the " Ann." ("V Cymm- 
rodor," i.\. p. 171), Elen is daughter of loumarc (a mistake for Loumarc), 
son of Himeyt. Loumarc is the Welsli lywarch. 

- The "Brut," s.a. 991, with a videlicet, describes the kingdoms of 
Maredud as — Dyfed and Keredigion, and Gower and Kydweli. Vstrad 
Towi is not specifically mentioned, l)ut probably it was covered by the term 
" kingdom of Keredigion,'" 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 151 

probably North Wales up to the Dee, but at this time it 
did not comprise Chester.^ 

Pursuing the policy adopted by vElfred, of completely 
interposing an English kingdom between the Welsh 
and the Danes, the rulers of Mercia early in the tenth 
century proceeded to re-fortify that city. Since its sur- 
render to yEthelfrith in 616 the city had lain waste and 
desolate. Situate on the Dee, being the point of junction 
of ancient ways, and commanding the old coast route 
from England to Anglesey, it was a place of military 
importance, and its effectual occupation cut off the shortest 
communication between the Welsh of Gwyned and the 
Danish Mercians. Its Roman walls still existed in a 
damaged condition, and little exertion must have been 
necessary to make it a comparatively strongly-defended 
centre of operations. In 907 the Ealdorman of Mercia 
"renewed" Chester, though we are not informed as to the 
extent of the new fortifications he erected. A small 
seittlement was made, and a secular house of St. Werburgh 
was founded in the cit}^ The event was of consequence 
in Welsh history, and henceforth Chester played a con- 
siderable part in the military and the economic fortunes of 
the men of Gwyned and Powys. 

Bearing these general considerations in mind, we now 
return to the personal history of Idwal and Howel. 

Few facts are known concerning Idwal's reign over 
Gwyned. In 922, when Eadward the Elder had subdued 
all Mercia (Danish as well as English), Idwal, together with 
Howel fia and a Welsh king called Clydawc,- received him as 
their lord,"' and the two former did homage to ^Ethelstan 
in 926^ at Hereford and, it is said, rendered tribute to him. 

' We can find no evidence of a re-peopling of Cliester by the Welsii. 
- We know not where he reigned; The death of a Clydog is recorded in the 
"Brut," s.a. 917, and in "Ann. Cam.," s.a. 919. 
^ " Eng. Chron.," s.a. 922. 
•* "Eng. Chron.," s.a. 926, 



152 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

A word or two ought here to be said as to the submission 
of the Welsh kings to these kin^s of the Enghsh. There can 
be no reasonable doubt that "the entries in the English 
chronicles, confirmed as they are by authentic charters 
and by the documents relating to the litigation between 
Howel Da and Morgan Hen referred to below, recount real 
historical events. But there is danger of misunderstanding 
what took place. The kings of the English did not by 
reason of the commendation of the Welsh kings obtain the 
right of directl)' interfering in the affairs of the Welsh 
kingdoms. Though Idwal and Howel became his men, their 
subjects — under-kings or lords or uchelwyr — stood in no 
legal relation to the English king. The effect of the com- 
mendation was that the over-lord took upon himself the 
duty of protecting his vassals from their enemies, while on 
their side they incurred the obligation of fighting against 
their lord's enemies. The tie was necessarily, in those times, 
a loose one, and was often broken.^ The reality of the 
relationship in the first half of the tenth century is shown 
by the attendance of the Welsh princes at the meetings of 
the Witenagemot. If we can trust a charter (which is, how- 
ever, of doubtful authenticity), Idwal was taking part in the 
proceedings of the English assembly at Exeter in 928.- 
That Howel Da attended these meetings on sev^eral 
occasions is certain. The silence of the Brut about Idwal 
till 943 affords some indication that nothing of any import- 
ance took place in Gwyned between 926 and that time ; 
but as in that \'ear Idwal and his brother Elised were killed 
by the English,^ we may presume that Idwal had revolted, 
or perhaps had refused to pa)' tribute, but there is no 
certainty about the matter. 

We have somewhat fuller information about Howel Da, 

' See as to the etfect of " coininendation "' Freeman, N. C. i., pp. i3r-2. 

- See charter, "Cod. Dipl.," iioi. 

3 "Brut." s.a. 941 ; "Ann. Cam.,".f.(7. 943. 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 153 

though of the earlier years — that is, the years before the 
submission to Eadward the Elder — we know nothing. 
Whether or not he took part in the actions of Dinas Newyd 
or of Brun we cannot determine. After doing homage 
to ^thelstan he is said to have made a pilgrimage to 
Rome.^ 

There seems no reason to doubt this, but if he did so we 
may infer that there was an unusually stable position of things 
in Wales, and no internal events seem to have made such 
a journey necessary. Upon his return he resumed peace- 
able exercise of his regal rights. From that time to the year 
before his death he was a frequent attendant at the meetings 
of the Witenagemot of his English over-lords. We know 
from his subscription of charters that he did so in 93 1 , 
932, 933, 934, 937, 946, and 949.'' In the earlier charters 
he attests as " sub-regulus " ; in the later ones he subscribes 
as " regulus " and " rex." Perhaps the difference is due to 
his having on Idwal's death succeeded to Gwyned and 
becoming recognised as king of the Britons or of the 
Cymry. 

The nature of Howel's relations with the English kings 
is made clearer by the account, preserved in the Book of 
Llandaff, of a dispute between him and Morgan Hen, 

' "Brut," s.a. 926; "Ann. Cam.," s.a. 928. The date is uncertain; see 
below, p. 182-3. 

2 The following are the dates of the charters, antl the references to them in 
Kemble's "Cod. Diplom." : — 

21 July, 931 ("Cod. Dipl.'" v. 199). 
12 Nov., 931 (id., ii. 173). 
30 Aug., 932 (i7>., V. 208). 

15 Dec, 933 (id., ii. 194). 
28 May, 934 (id., ii. 196). 

16 Dec, 934 (id., V. 217). 

937 {id., ii. 203). 

946 and 949 (id., ii. 269, 292, 296). 
There ai-e also subscriptions of Howel's to doubtful charters of the 17th June, 
930, and the ist Jan. aad 2lst Dec, 935 ("Cod. Dipl." ii. XJO ; v. 222; 
ii. 203). 



154 ^^-^ WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

king of Morgannwg. The entry in the Book is not, however, 
free from ambiguity. It says Eadgar and Howel Da and 
Morgan Hen were kings of all Britain, and those two were 
subject to King Eadgar, and Morgan enjoyed the whole of 
Glamorgan in peace and quietness, but Howel would take 
from him Ystradyew and Ewyas if he could. Then Eadgar 
summoned his under-kings and Morgan's son, Owain, before 
him, and having examined the matter in dispute, gave 
judgment in favour of Morgan, and with the common assent 
and testimon}' of all the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, 
and barons of all England and Wales granted to Owain, the 
son of Morgan Hen, " the said two districts of Ystradyew 
and Ewyas, declared by name to be in the diocese of Llan- 
daff, as his own proper inheritance." ^ There are several 
points of difficult}' connected with this document — points 
which we do not affect to solve. Eadgar, though he had 
ruled in Mercia before, was not king of England till 958, 
some eight years after Howel's death. Morgan Hen survived 
Howel, for he was a witness to a charter of Eadwig's in 956, 
together with Eadgar, sub-regulus of Mercia. There is a 
Welsh version of the same Latin document to be found in 
the Myvyrian Archaiology, among the collection called 
" Y cwta c)'farwyd o Forganwg." It is clearly impossible 
that Howel could have appeared before Eadgar, king of 
England. It is, of course, possible that the dispute ma\' 
have ari.sen during the time of Howel, and, Hngering on for 
years, may have been decided by Eadgar. But, on the 
other hand, it is quite possible that the dispute may have 
been decided, not by Eadgar, but by Eadward the Elder, 
and that the mistake may have occurred in the transcription 
of the account of the dispute and of the grant, especially as 
we find it expressly stated that it was inserted in the Book 

' "Book of Llan Dav " (Oxford. 1893), p. 248; "Liber Landavensis " 
(Llandovery, 1870), p. 237; I'algrave. " Ensjlish Commonwealth," v. 2, 
p. ccxliv. 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 155 

of I.andaff because the paper on which it had been written 
had nearly perished from its great age.^ 

It is, however, on his legislation that the fame of Howel 
Da chiefly depends, for to him is attributed the setting 
down in writing of the laws and customs of the Cymry. 
The preamble prefixed to each of the codes that have 
been handed down to us in substance (though in varying 
language) records that Howel summoned four men from 
each cantref in his dominions to the Ty Gwyn, which is 
identified by far-reaching tradition with Whitland in Car- 
marthenshire. We deal with these laws in the following 
chapter. Though there is no mention in the Brut of the 
summoning of this meeting at T}' Gwyn, there is no reason 
to doubt that the preambles of the Code preserve a 
historical transaction.- It is probable that the compilation 
of the work took place after Howel had become king of 
Gwyned upon Idwal's death, and therefore some time 
between 943 and 950. These facts are all that we can 
glean upon trustworthy evidence concerning a king who 
was, to use the words of a later writer, " for his godlie 
behaviour, discreet and just rule, beloved of men." They 
are too few to enable us to draw a vivid picture of his 
character or personality, but they corroborate the view of 
him popularly entertained among the Welsh people, and 
justify us in inferring that he was an able and politic prince, 
under whom Wales enjoyed a period of unusual repose and 
prosperity. 

The peace that Howel had kept disappeared at his death. 
There was war at once between his sons (Owain, Dyfnwal, 
Rhodri, and Edwyn) and the sons of Idwal Voel (leuaf 
and lago), and the eighty-nine years that elapsed from the 

^ Palgrave, ?/^/ supra, says that according to usual custom the Welsh scribe 
omitted the final d and substituted a »■ for a w, relying, he observes, on the 
authority of a genealogical MS. (" Bibl. Harl.," 4181). 

- See the next chapter. 



156 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

commencement of this conflict to the accession of Gruffyd 
ab ILewelyn in 1039 form a time of almost inextricable 
confusion. In a battle fought at Carno in the very year 
that Howel died his sons sustained a defeat at the hands 
of leuaf and lago, who, setting aside their elder brother, 
obtained joint possession of Gwyned.^ In 952 they 
ravaged Dyfed twice, and slew Dyfnwatlon, who was 
probably the prince of that region.- The sons of Howel 
in 954 invaded North Wales, but were again apparently 
unsuccessful, being beaten in an engagement at Lanrwst,^ 
by the sons of Idwal, who thereupon devastated Keredigion — 
whence, however, it is said they were driven back with 
great slaughter.^ After this there was an interval of peace 
between Gwyned and Deheubarth, but raids of the Danes 
gave some trouble. 

There was a quarrel with the English in 965, and Alvryd 
invaded and ravaged Gwyned" ; while in 970 Godfrey son 
of Harold subdued and for a time held Mon.^'' Before 
this latter event, however, the brothers of Gw\n::cJ had 
quarrelled. lago seized leuaf and caused him to be blinded 
and then hanged. The relations between the Welsh 
princes and Eadgar (958 — 975) were fairl)' peaceable, 
though there seems to have been an invasion of Gwyned 
in 968,^ but the English hold on Wales was gradually 
relaxing. No fewer than four Welsh princes attended a 
Witenagemot held by Eadred. During Eadgar's time, 
so far as we can tell, the Welsh no longer attended the 
English Court, and their dependence on the English Crown, 

1 " Brut," s.a. 948, 950, 951, 952. 

- He may have been Dyfnwal ab Howel Da; but the ■ Rrut " places the 
death of this Dyfnwal in the following year. 

^ " Brut," S.17. 952. 

'' Gwentian " Brut " (My v. Arch. ii.. 468 (ri se</.). 

'" "Brut," s.a. 965 and s.a. 970. 

^ "Ann. Cam.," s.a. 968. It is possible this is the same invasion as that 
by Alvryd noted in the " Brut," s.a. 965. 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 157 

which had been real enough, as we have seen, earHer in the 
century, was now becoming nominal as the power of the 
house of Alfred was waning.^ 

In later chronicles it is said that Eadgar went to Chester 
and summoned eight under-kings — including five Welsh 
princes — to his presence, that they did homage and swore 
fealty, and that as a mark of their subordination he caused 
his vassals to row him in his barge on the Dee from the 
palace to the monastery of John the Baptist, and after 
divine service there back to the palace." Possibly the 
invasion of Gwyned mentioned above may have led to 
a renewal of oaths of fealty and payment of tribute ; but 
this twelfth-century story cannot be accepted as certain 
history, and a similar observation must be made as to the 
imposition by Eadgar of a tribute of three hundred wolves.'^ 

Returning to the affairs of Gwyned, the murdered 
leuaf had left a son called Howel, who was not long in 
avenging his father's death, for in 972 he succeeded in 
expelling I ago and taking possession of Gwyned in his 
stead. lago was captured by Danes in 978, and we hear 
of him no more."^ 

Howel's rule was soon challenged, for the cause of the 
defeated chieftain was espoused by his son Kystenin, and 
in the year after the capture of his father he, with the help 
of Godfrey son of Harold (of whom we have already 
heard), made a raid on E.eyn (in the modern South 

1 Green, " Conqu. of Eng.," p. 323. There is one charter to which lago s 
name (as Jacob) appears dated at Bath, Whitsuntide, 966, but the document 
is suspect. Kemble, "Cod Dipl.," 519. 

" "Will. Malm. Gest. Reg." (Hardy) i., p. 251 : "Flor. Wore." (Thorpe) 
. 142. 

s "Will. Malm. Gest. Reg." (Hardy) i. 251. Palgrave prints a charter (the 
date of which must have been before 971, since one of the subscribers, Oscytel, 
died in that year) which lukill and lacobus attest. "Eng. Com." ii., 
p. ccliii. They may have been leuaf and lago ; but lukill does not look like 
leuaf at all. 

* The dates are quite uncertain. See " Brut," s.cr. 972 and 978. 



158 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

Carnarvonshire) and Mon, but he was met by Howel ab 
leuaf at Hirbarth, and fell in the battle.^ Howel, who 
acquired (in curious antithesis to the case of Howel Oa) 
the epithet of Drwg, or the Bad, does not seem to have 
been attacked by other Welsh claimants to Gwyned ; but 
the Godfrey son of Harold (who had taken the side of 
Kystenin, as we have seen) still vexed the Welsh kingdom. 
In 981 he ravaged Dyfed, and in the next year Brecheiniog, 
and the territories of Einion ab Ovvain ab Howel Da were 
overrun by the Saxons under Alvryd. In 984 Howel was 
killed by the " Saxons through treachery."- He left two sons 
—at least — Maig, who was killed in the following year, and 
Cadwaiton, who took possession of Gwyned, but who was 
almost immediately defeated and slain '^ by Maredud ab 
Owain, king of Deheubarth (a grandson of Howel Da), 
who played a considerable part for the next few years. 

We must now turn for a moment to the affairs of Deheu- 
barth. Upon Howel Da's death Owain and his three 
brothers succeeded to that kingdom, but failed to make 
good whatever claim they may have had to Gwyned" as 
against the sons of Idwal. Dyfnwal, Rhodri, and P2dwyn 
died very soon,* and Owain reigned alone till he died in 
987 or 989,'' and was succeeded b}' the Maredud just 
mentioned. 

From an incidental statement in the Brut^ we know that 
Maredud's pos.sessions included Dyfed, Keredigion, Gwyr, 
and Kydweli, and no doubt Ystrad Towi, which had long 

' " Brut," s.a. 979. 

- "Brut," s.a. 984. Probably, however, a year or two later. 

•* " Brut," i-.ii. 984. 

* In 951 and 952, according to tiie " Brut." Prol^ably in either case later. 

^ " Brut," s.d. 987. In " Ann, Cam, " Owain's death is placed in the next 
entry after 987. 

'• "Brut," S.C7. 991. It is curious that this is pretty nearly the kingdom of 
Pryderi ab I'wytl, as described at the end of the story of Pwvit, prince of Dyfed, 
in the " Mabinogion." See Oxford edition of the Red Book, i. 25. 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST, 159 

been connected with Keredigion. Gwyr may have passed 
from Howel's sons on his death, for we have it recorded 
that Einion ab Owain, his grandson, devastated that district 
twice — the first time, according to the Brut, in 968, and the 
second time in 976. Probably Einion was extending the 
family territory to the east, and under his father Owain was 
able to annex some of the smaller lordships or areas to 
Deheubarth. We hear that Brecheiniog and all the territory 
of Einion were devastated by the Saxons in 982 ^ — an entry 
which seems to show that Einion's territory extended to 
south-eastern Wales. The year after this raid Einion was 
killed through "the treachery of the nobles of Gwent."- 

Apart from such exploits as may have been performed by 
Einion and Maredud, the only events of Owain's long reign 
were the usual raids of Danish leaders, and some conflicts 
with the English. Of his relation to Powys we know 
nothing certain. We may conjecture with some probability 
that he shared some of the qualities of his father, for upon 
his death he handed on to Maredud the kingdom of 
Deheubarth with its area undiminished, and before that 
event, as we have recounted, his son Maredud, taking 
advantage of the fall of Howel Brwg, had founded a claim 
to Gwyned" by attacking and killing that king's brother, 
Cadwatton ab leuaf 

Maredud does not seem to have been able to obtain 
real possession of Gwyned, though Caradog places him 
in the line of kings or princes of all Wales.-^ He was 

' "Brut,'' s.cr. 982. Cf. Ann. Cam. (Rolls Series), p. 20. 

- " Brut," s.a. 983. Gwent was still farther to the east, and beyond 
Morgannwg. 

•* We may conjecture, too, that the real effect of Maredud's victory over 
Cadwatton ab leuaf was to create a kind of interregnum in Gwyned. The 
student must bear in mind that the fact that there was no king of Gwyned at 
any particular moment did not disorganise the life of the territory as the want 
of a head in the highly-centralised systems of to-day generally does now. 
Except in time of attack from without, there was some advantage to the ordinary 
head of a family, for the king's progresses, etc., were for the time discontinued. 



i6o THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

chiefly occupied in repelling the Danes (to whom he paid 
tribute on at least one occasion)/ and in attacks upon 
Gwyned and Morgannwg.- It is said he ruled Powys in 
right of his mother, but there is no sufficient authority for 
this/' However this may be, he fairly maintained the 
prestige of the house of Howel Da in a very disturbed 
period, and died a natural death in 998 or 999,* leaving 
only one child — a daughter, married to ILewelyn ab Seisyltt, 
who, apparently in right of his wife, assumed the government 
of Deheubarth. 

Ever since the retreat of Maredud from Gwyned, after 
his victory over Cadwatton, that kingdom had been in a 
condition of extreme confusion ; and there was probably 
from the death of Cadwatton ab leuaf to lago ab Idwal's' 
accession a kind of interregnum.^ Meurig ab Idwal Voel 
(apparently he who was ousted by his brothers leuaf and 
lago) " fell sick " and died,^ but he left issue. Among his 
.sons was an Idwal, who fled to ILancarvan in Morganwg, 
in the lifetime of Maredud, who made an attempt to seize 
him. Idwal's claims on Gwyned seem to have been just, 
according to the legal rules of succession, and Maredud's 
attempt on his person having failed, he .secured some 
adherents, and in 992 returned to Gwyned.^ In the 
following year, 993, a battle took place between him and 

' " Brul," j.rt-. 988. 

^ In 990 he devastated also Maes Hyfeid (roughly equivalent to the present 
Radnorshire). See " Brut," s.a. 990. 

■* Warrington, p. 20, cites " Brit. Antiq. Revived,'' by G. Vauglian of 
Hengwrt, pp. 5, 14. 

^ " Brut," s.a. 99S. 

^ I.e., 984 to 1021. 

^ Caradog, however, fills the time up with Idwal ab Meurig, Conan ab Howel, 
and Aedan ab lilegored. 

^ " Brut," s.tr. 972 ; but c/. '' Ann. Cam.," " Meuric filius Idwal caecatusest " 

(974)- 

" "Brut," s.a. 992: "the sons of Meurig made an inroad into 
Gwyned." 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUIEST. i6i 

his brothers^ and the sons of Maredud", in which the former 
triumphed, with the result that Idwal ab Meurig became 
king of Gwyned;^ but he did not enjoy his success long, 
for two years after he was killed, probably by the Danes.^ 

He left a son of tender years, lago, who, though passed 
over for the moment, many years after obtained Gwyned. 
Upon Idwal's death Kynan ab Howel, Aedan ab Blegored, 
and others, with little or no show of right, " did aspire to 
the government," and sought the rule of the land.* There 
was again a contested succession, but Kynan was killed 
(presumably in a battle with Aedan) in 1003,'' and Aedan 
seems to have usurped the throne. We know nothing more 
of him except that he and his four sons were killed in 10 16 
in a fight with ILewelyn ab Seisyttt, who once moi-e joined 
Gwyned to Deheubarth.^ The troubles of England under 
^thelred the Unready, culminating in the fall of the house 
of iElfred and the accession of Cnut, seem to have afforded 
some relief to Wales from attacks from the English border 
as well as by Danish forces, and with the reign of ILewelyn 
begins a fresh growth of Cymric power that attained its 
greatest development in the reign of his son, Gruffyd ab 
ILewelyn. It is assumed that ILewelyn ruled over Powys," 
but for this there is no certain warrant. Though Deheu- 
barth seems to have been fairly quiet under his rule, he 
had one rising at least to contend with. The uchelwyr 
of South Wales "loved not Lewelyn,"^ and, led by one 

^ In the "Brut" Idwal's party is described as the sons of Meurig. The 
only one of the sons of Meurig besides Idwtil whose name we know seems to 
be the Jonaval who was killed by Cadwatlon ab leuaf in 984. " lirut,' s.a. 
984. Cf. '■ Ann. Cam.," p. 24. 

- " Brut," j-.(r. 993. 

2 " Brut," s.a. 995. Three- years after, according to •" Ann. Cam.," p. 21. 

■* Caradog, p. 74. 

^ " Brut," s.a. 1003. 

^ " Brut," s.a. 1016. 

' Warrington, p. 205. 

^ Caradog, p. 85. 

W.P. M 



i62 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

Meurig ab Arthvael, revolted in 1019, but they were at 
once subdued.^ 

In the following year there was a more formidable rebel- 
lion, when a pretender called Rein Yscot, affecting to be a son 
of Maredud ab Owain, got together the strength of Deheu- 
barth at Abergwili, and waited the coming of the king. 
H.ewelyn, " daring and fearless," with the host of Gwyned 
engaged in battle and conquered Rein, who, though brave 
and confident in assault, " retreated shamefully in a fox-like 
manner, and never thenceforward made his appearance."- 
The men of Gwyned wrathfully pursued the enemy, and 
devastated the country to the Mercian border. In 1023 
ILewelyn at the height of his power died.'' It is said by 
Caradog he was slain by two descendants of Howel Da, but 
the " Brut" simply records that he died. His son Gruffyd, 
who was destined to play a great part in the years just 
before the Norman Conquest, must have been at this 
time very young, and did not succeed to either king- 
dom. Gwyned fell to lago, the son of that Idwal who 
had possessed it in defiance of Maredud ab Owain ; but 
possibly he did not make good his claims till some time 
after ILewelyn's death.* But it was only to Gwyned that 
he succeeded, for Deheubarth was seized by Rhyderch 
ab lestyn.'' Though possessing neither of the two principal 
divisions of his dominions by a legal title, ILewelyn's rule 
left a marked impression upon the Welsh people. Accord- 
ing to the " Brut," " In his time it was usual for the elders of 
his kingdom to say that his dominion was from one sea to 
the other complete in abundance of wealth and inhabitants ; 



' Meurig was killed. " Brut," j.^1019. " Book of Lan Dav " ( 0.\f. ). p. 200. 
^ " Brut," s.a. 1020. 

•* " Brut," j.rt. 1021. "Ann. Ca.m." s.a. 1023. Caradog, p. 86. 
■* " Brut," s.a. 1031, says : "And then lago ab Idwal held the government 
of Gwyned after ILewelyn." 

^ We infer this from later events recorded in the " Brut." 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 163 

so that it was supposed there was neither poor nor destitute 
in all his territories ; nor empty trev nor any deficiency."^ 

Though we cannot fix the exact year in which lago ab 
Idwal obtained a real possession of Gwyned, it seems 
clear that his reign was uneventful. Nor did anything of 
special consequence happen in the south. Great events, 
however, had been taking place in England, for the Danish 
king Cnut had become in 10 16 ruler of all England,^ which 
he divided into the great ealdormanries of Wessex, Mercia, 
East Anglia, and Northumbria. Cnut's accession brought 
peace to the whole country. The Danish pirate fleets 
(speaking broadly) ceased to ravage the coast of the island, 
while indirectly the vigorous government of Cnut benefited 
Wales as well as the territories under his more direct rule. 
English manufactures and trade began to make some 
progress. Worcester was growing to be a place of import- 
ance, and Gloucester was rapidly rising to a position which 
enabled it in the years after the Norman Conquest to 
exercise a marked influence on the development of 
South Wales. In the north, Chester, restored as we have 
seen some one hundred years before by ^thelflaeda, 
was now a centre of commerce and the common meeting 
ground of Irish, Welsh, Cumbrians, English, and Danes. 
The quiet of lago's reign is probably largely explained by 
these and other more general circumstances. Deheubarth 
and the small principalities to the south-east enjoyed an 
unwonted immunity from external attack, but there was 
as usual internal trouble. Rhyderch of Deheubarth was 
slain, it is said by Irish-Scots, in 1051 or 1033.^ Howel 
and Maredud, sons of Edwin,* took his place, but a year 



1 S.a. 1020. 

- Green, " Conqu. of Eng.," pp. 411 et seq. 
^ "Brut,"j-.a. 1031. "Ann. Cam.," j.a. 1033. 

■* Apparently this Edwin was son of Einion, one of the grandsons of Howel 
Da : see the genealogical table at end of this chapter. 

M 2 



164 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

afterwards the sons of Rhyderch revolted, and a battle 
was fought at Hiraethwy, in which the latter were probably 
defeated. Maredud ab Edwin was soon after killed in an 
obscure conflict/ and Howel, his brother, was left in sole 
possession of Deheubarth, though Grufifyd ab Rhyderch 
survived to create further disturbances in after years. 

The peace of Gwyned" was some six years after these 
events broken by the assertion of his claims by Gruff)'d 
ab ILewelyn ab Seisyltt, who had, though still young, b}' 
that time reached manhood. Of his early years nothing 
is known. The immediate occasion of his attack upon 
Gwyned appears to have been that one lestyn ab Gwrgant, 
having ravished Gruffyd's cousin Arden, the daughter of 
Robert ab Seisyltt, fled to I ago, who gave him his protec- 
tion. Gruffyd thereupon raised a force, engaged the army 
of lago, slew the king, and seized his kingdom.'- 

It was during the reign of Gruffyd ab ILewelyn — extend- 
ing from 1039 to 1063 — that the Cymry reached the point of 
greatest strength since the death of Cadwaladr, and that for 
the first time for many years their leader was able to exercise 
an appreciable influence on affairs beyond the border. In 
1035 Cnut had died. At the meeting of the Witan at 
Oxford held after his death, notwithstanding the resistance 
of the powerful Godwine, Earl of Wessex, who endeavoured 
to enforce the will of Cnut in favour of Harthacnut, 
Harold Harefoot was chosen king, with the aid of Leofric, 
Earl of Mercia. Godwine's influence was, however, strong 
enough to secure part of the late king's dominions for the 
younger son of Cnut, who was recognised as king of 
Wessex. It was after England had been once more 
divided, and the house of Godwine had received a temporar}' 
check in its path of aggrandisement, that Gruffyd" became 
king of Gwyned. Nearly ninety years had passed since 

' "Brut,"5.a. 1033. "Ann. Cam.," j-.a. 1035. 
- " Brut," s.a. 1037. " Ann. Cam.," s.a. 1039. 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 165 

the death of Howel Da. They had been for the most 
part, as the bald narrative we have been able to give shows, 
years of almost continued internal confusion, of border 
troubles, and of vexatious invasions from beyond the sea. 
But the career of Gruffyd" ab ILewelyn seems to show that 
the conflicts that had been waged and the events that had 
taken place had not sensibly affected the power of the 
Cymric clans as a whole. It is difficult to avoid the infer- 
ence that the wars during this disturbed period, of which 
the recollection is preserved in the " Brut," were on a merely 
petty scale— an inference strengthened, of course, by our 
knowledge that the population was very small. ^ 

However this may be, there can be no doubt that under 
the leadership of Gruffyd the Cymry suddenly developed 
an amount of military capacity and activity which had not 
been displayed for centuries, and which resulted in their 
becoming a factor of some considerable importance in the 
affairs of the whole island. The divisions of race in England, 
the rivalries of the great Earls, and other circumstances, 
combined to assist Gruffyd in uniting the forces of Wales, 
consolidating his own position, and making himself not 
only the predominant chieftain in Wales, but a dangerous 
and powerful foe to the English king, or at any rate to the 
house of Godwine. One reason no doubt was that after 
the first year of his reign his policy — one consistently 
pursued — was to remain on friendly terms with the Earl 
and people of Mercia, or rather the English part of the 
old kingdom of Mercia, then forming the ealdormanry of 
Leofric. Of the personal characteristics of this the greatest 
military chief of the Cymry (except, perhaps, ILewelyn ab 
lorwerth, who was to exhibit similar qualities two hundred 
years later), we know nothing except what may be 
inferred from his deeds. The burst of literary activity 
which commenced among the Cymry shortly after the 

' See the Introduction, above. 



i66 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

Norman Conquest has preserved for us much information 
about later and far less important princes and warriors ; 
but though Gruffyd, like them, had bards in his train 
and at his court, not even fragments of their poems have 
come down to enlighten us concerning the lord whom they 
doubtless delighted to honour. For Gruffyd's life, as in 
regard to those of his predecessors, we must rely simply on 
the short entries in the chronicles. 

Gruffyd's character showed itself at once. In the very 
year of his accession he led a raid over the border into 
Mercia, and beat the English forces in a battle at Rhyd-y- 
Groes,^ on the Severn, in which Eadwine, brother of Earl 
Leofric, was slain. This event does not seem to have 
embroiled him with the Mercian Earl, for henceforth we find 
him in alliance with the house of Leofric, and many years 
elapsed before he again invaded England. He immediately 
turned his attention to Deheubarth. Howel ab Edwin, who 
was now possessed of South Wales as a result of the defeat 
of the sons of Rhyderch, was, without any considerable 
pause, attacked by Gruffyd, and defeated in an encounter 
at ILanbadarn. Howel was forced to fly to the Irish Norse- 
men for assistance. Two years afterwards, with their 
support, he returned to Wales, and penetrated into Kere- 
digion, but was again beaten b}' Gruffyd in an engagement 
at Pencader, which was of a decisive character, and in 
which the victor captured Howel's wife, whom he took 
as his mistress. Howel's resources were not, however, 
exhausted, and, b}^ one of the sudden changes of fortune 
characteristic of the period, in the following year (1042) 
Gruffyd was himself beaten, with the aid of the "black 
Pagans," and taken prisoner, at PwH D}'vach. Somehow — 
probably by payment of a ransom — Gruffyd regained his 

' Literally "the foirl of the Cross." The chief autliorities for the life of 
Gruffyd are the " Brut." and "Ann. Cam.," with the English Chronicle. See 
his life in "Diet. Nat. Biog." 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 167 

liberty, and returned to his kingdom. Two years after 
Howe!, who seems to have once more gone to Ireland, came 
back with a fleet, and, saihng round Dyfed, proceeded to 
the Towy, but was defeated and lost his Hfe in a battle with 
the army of Gruffyd at Abertowy.^ 

This victory secured Deheubarth for the king of 
Gwyned, though his troubles in that part of Cymru 
were not over. Howel, as we have seen, had himself 
violently usurped the crown of Deheubarth, after expel- 
ling Rhyderch. Two sons of the latter, Gruffyd and 
Rhys, saw in Howel's overthrow an opportunity of 
asserting the claims of their house. How far they were 
able to obtain actual possession of the whole or any part of 
South Wales is not clear; but probably it was Gruffyd ab 
ILewelyn who was the actual ruler, while the sons of Rhyd- 
erch from time to time attacked him or his subordinate 
lords. About ten years, however, elapsed from the defeat 
of Howel before Gruffyd was able finally to suppress the 
house of Rhyderch. That he was strengthening himself 
with prudence is shown by his peaceful attitude towards 
Edward the Confessor's government, and his close relation 
to the Mercian Earl ; and when Swein son of Godwine, in or 
about 1045, was Earl of the south-western part of the old 
kingdom of Mercia, he joined Gruffyd ab ILewelyn in 
an expedition against the sons of Rhyderch. His friend- 
ship with the house of Mercia was cemented by his marriage 
with Ealdgyth, daughter of yElfgar, the son of Leofric, who 
afterwards became the wife of Harold H. Gruffyd also 

1 This place is not to be confounded with Aberteivi in Keredigion, nor witii 
Abertawe. Abertowy occurs in the Twrch Trwyth hunt. At "Aber Tyvvi "' 
it was that Twrch Trwyth turned to bay and killed Kynlas son of Kynan. and 
Gwilenhin. king of France. See Rhys's paper in "Transactions of Cymmro- 
dorion Society,'" 1894-5, P- 16. Abertowy was on the peninsula between the 
Towy and the Gwendraeth. About three years ago a storm, carrying away 
parts of the sandbanks there, exposed the foundations of a row of houses. 
(Account furnished to Professor Rhys by Mr. Drummond, agent for Lord 
Cawdor. ) 



i68 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

succeeded in obtaining a grant from the English king of 
all the lands west of the Dee that had theretofore been 
taken possession of by the English. 

In 1047 he had to deal with a more than usually serious 
revolt in Deheubarth. The uchelwyr of Ystrad Towi 
suddenly rose and slew one hundred and forty of his men. 
Gruffyd thereupon laid waste that district, as well as Dyfed. 
This rising had probably some connection with the claims 
of Gruffyd ab Khyderch and his brother. Two years 
later there was further trouble in the south. The Irish allies 
of Gruffyd^ ab Rhyderch are said to have ravaged Deheu- 
barth. We hear nothing further of this Gruffyd", except 
that he was slain by Gruffyd ab ILewelyn in 1055, and 
his brother Rhys, too, disappears from the story. 

Even before the death of Gruffyd ab Rhyderch the 
power of the North-Welsh king had become very consider- 
able. He felt himself strong enough once more to invade 
England. Of the circumstances that led to this course of 
action we have no information. Whatever the reason for 
the raid, Gruffyd in 1052 penetrated into the land of 
Hereford, very nigh to Leominster, and fought the " lands- 
men as well as the Frenchmen of the Castle " on the same 
day on which, thirteen years before, Eadvvine had been 
slain.^ yElfgar was outlawed in 1055, without, as the 
English chronicler says, any guilt- He fled to Ireland 
and collected a fleet of eighteen ships, and with that force 
proceeded to Wales to Gruffyd, who received him into 
his protection. Gruffyd and his father-in-law, having 
gathered together a great force, invaded England, and 
defeated the English under Ralph the Earl near Hereford. 
" Before there was any spear thrown the English people 
fled because they were on horses, and there great slaughter 

' '"Eng. Chion.," s.a. 1052. "And there were slain of the English very 
many good men, and also of the Erenchmen." 
" " Eng. Chron.,"' ^.a. 1055. 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 169 

was made about four hundred or five, and they made none 
on the other side."^ The "Welsh then took Hereford, burnt 
the town and the minster that the venerable Bishop 
^thelstan had built, and even slew the priests that were 
within it and many others, and retired carrying away 
much booty.- 

The incapable Ralph was replaced by Harold son of 
Godwine, and the importance of the Welsh victory is shown 
by the fact that a great force was gathered " from well 
nigh all England."'^ The English army met at Gloucester, 
and started against the Welsh. Gruffyd appears to have 
retreated, or at any rate avoided an engagement, and 
Harold either did not desire or was not able to bring about 
a battle. Some obscure negotiations took place between 
yElfgar and Gruffyd on the one side, and Harold on the 
other. The result was that peace was restored ; yElfgar 
was in-lawed, but Gruffyd lost the lands beyond the Dee 
that had been granted to him by the king. One of the 
copies of the English Chronicle says that when the Welsh 
" had done the utmost evil this counsel was counselled : 
that Elgar (/Elfgar) the Earl should be in-lawed and be 
given his earldom and all that had been taken from him." 
The fact that peace in accordance with this counsel was 
made is the strongest evidence of the formidable influence 
of the Welsh king. Harold forthwith rebuilt Hereford, and 
Bishop iEthelstan having died, he appointed Leofgar, his 
mass-priest, to be Bishop on February 7, 1056. 

The peace between Gruffyd and Harold was not long 
kept. In the summer of 1056 Gruffyd (who was probably 
dissatisfied with the arrangements of the year before) again 



' " Eng. Chron.," s.a. 1055. 

" "Eng. Chron.," j-.«. 1055. C/. "Brut.," j-.a. 1054. This entry describes 
the engagement as a " severely hard battle," and says the Saxons took to flight 
unable to bear the assault of the Britons, and fell with a veiy great slaughter. 

•• " Eng. Chron.," s.a. 1055. 



I70 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

invaded south-west Mercia. He was met by the new 
Bishop — who had worn " his knapsack during his priest- 
hood till he was a bishop," and then " forsook his chrism 
and his rood, his ghostl}' weapons, and took to his 
spear and sword after his bishophood " — and ^Ifnoth, 
the Sheriff, at the head of the Mercian forces, eight days 
before Midsummer' Gruffyd was again victorious; both 
the Bishop and the Sheriff were slain, and with them 
" many good men." Gruffyd seems to have followed up 
his success, for the English chronicler found it " difficult 
to tell the distress, and all the marching and all the 
camping, and the travail and destruction of men and 
also of horses which all the English army sustained." 
But Leofric, Harold, and Bishop Ealdred of Worcester 
came to Gruffyd and succeeded, though we know not on 
what terms, in quieting him. A reconciliation was effected, 
and Gruffyd swore oaths that he would be to King 
Edward " a faithful and unbetraying under-king."- 

Two years after this event, however, it is recorded in the 
" Brut " that Magnus, son of Harold, described as "king of 
Germany," came to England and ravaged the dominions of 
the Saxons, and that Gruffyd was his "conductor and 
auxiliary."'^ The English Chronicle says that a fleet came 
from Norway in 1058, but does not connect this event with 
Gruffyd; but that there were hostilities between him and 
the English in that \'ear is clear, for yElfgar the Earl, who 
succeeded his father on his death in 1057, was banished, but 
soon returned, with the aid of his son-in-law.* The Welsh 
king was now at the height of his power. So long as y^ilfgar 
lived, however, he .seems to have kept the peace. Harold him- 
self had taken possession of the earldom of the Magesaetas 

' " Eng. Cliron.," s.a. 1056. 

- "Eng. Chron ," .f.(Z. 1056. 

•* "Brut," j.rt. 1056. In "Ann. Cam.," seemingly 1058. 

* "Eng. Chron.," j.fl. 1058. 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 171 

and the course of the Severn (i.e., south-west Mercia), no 
doubt with the intention of holding ^Ifgar and Gruffyd 
in check. The exact date of the former's death is not 
known, but it is probable that he died in 1062. Very likely 
border raids into England were made by the Welsh, or 
some other provocation was given by Gruffyd, for in 1063 
Harold determined to make a strong attempt to crush his 
dangerous and now too formidable neighbour. The chief 
palace of Gruffyd" was at Rhudlan, which was a site of 
military value, since it dominated the Vale of Clvvyd, and was 
then a seaport. It was against Rhudlan that Harold directed 
his first blow. With a small band (probably his own house- 
carls) he hastened there at the end of 1062, and surprised 
GruiTyd, who, however, escaped by sea. Unable to follow, 
and not strong enough to winter in North Wales, Harold 
contented himself with burning the house and the remaining 
ships, and set out back for Gloucester on the same day.^ 
It may be conjectured from the subsequent course of affairs 
that this event did much to damage Gruffyd's prestige 
among the loosely united Welsh clans, and especially among 
the uchelwyr of South Wales. Such a career as his, 
in the circumstances of his time, must have created 
jealousies and involved the enmity of many families among 
the Cymry. Only six years had elapsed since the final 
overthrow of the house of Rhyderch. Many men must 
have been waiting for the time when a reverse gave a 
favourable opportunity for revolt- 
It was immediately after his sudden raid on Rhudlan that 
Harold, now the most powerful subject of England — indeed, 
its real ruler — planned a systematic invasion of Wales. He 
collected a fleet at Bristol with a view to coasting round the 
country, while he arranged that his brother Tostig'^ should 

' Fl. Wigoni, 1063. 

- Note Giraldus' reference to GruffyS as X)ne "who by his tyranny for a 
long time had oppressed Wales " : " Itin. Cam.," book i., ch. 2. 
^ Tostig had become Earl of Northumbria. 



T72 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

cross the border from Northumbria with a land force. At 
Rogation-tide (in 1063) Harold left Bristol with his fleet and 
sailed along the coast, presumably landing at points where 
damage could be inflicted on the VVelsh.^ Tostig, acting 
in conjunction with his brother, crossed the border. For 
several weeks the English carried on a vigorous and far- 
reaching harrying of Gruffyd's dominions. There is no 
record of any pitched battles, and the warfare was clearly 
of the guerilla kind. Taught by experience, the English 
leaders changed their method of fighting. They made 
their men discard armour and give up the close array.- 
Lightly armed, they fought on the same terms as their 
active enemies. The Cymry defended themselves with 
stubbornness, but the English won many skirmishes and 
gave no quarter. The former suffered more severely than 
at any time since the death of Cadwaladr.'^ The campaign 
seems to have been carried on over a large part of Wales. 
The result was that " the people " (so says the English 
Chronicle) made a truce with Harold and delivered 
hostages.^ Of Gruffyd himself during these weeks in the 
summer of 1063 we hear nothing. Later authority says 
the Welsh sentenced him to deposition. What is certain 
is that he was slain in August by Welshmen — slain, 
according to the English chronicler, because " of the war 
he waged with Harold the Earl" — slain, according to the 
Brut, by the treachery of his own men. " The shield and 
defender of the Britons . . . the man who had been hitherto 
invincible, was now left in the glens of desolation, after 
taking immense spoils and after innumerable victories and 
countless treasures of gold and silver, and jewels and purple 

' " Eng. Cliron.," j'.rf, 1063. 
- See Freeman, " N.C.," ii. 480. 

^ Giraklus (writing about 140 years later) says tiiat Harold left scarcely a 
man alive in Wales. 

" Eng. Chron.," s.a. 1063. 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 173 

vestures."^ The effects of Harold's merciless ravaging were 
long felt. His victory plunged Wales once more into 
confusion, and no doubt contributed to the comparatively 
swift conquest of a great part of the South by the Normans 
a few years afteryvards. 

However ruthless Harold had shown himself in the 
campaign, so soon as Grufifyd had been got rid of he 
proceeded to arrange a new settlement of Welsh affairs. 
The kingdom of the dead chieftain was divided between 
Bledyn ab Cynfyn and his brother Rhiwatton,- but further 
considerable portions of Cymric land were added to the 
shires or earldoms on the border. The Vale of Clwyd, or 
the greater part of it, was added to the shire of Chester, 
and seemingly passed under the rule of Eadwine, son of 
yElfgar, Earl of Mercia. The whole or a large part of what 
is now Radnorshire became an English possession. Part 
of Gwent, though we cannot define what part (probably the 
land between the Wye and the Usk), was united to the 
earldom of Harold.^ How far, or in what sense, these lands 

1 " Brut.," j-.a. 1061. "Ann. Cam.," ^. a. 1063. 

'' The "Brut "and "Ann. Cam." are silentas to this, but the subsequent entries 
confirm the transaction. The "Worcester Chronicle" (1063) records it — mailing 
Bledyn and Rhiwatlon brothers of Gruffytt ; and in the "Brut," s.a. 1068, 
they are referred to as still reigning, and are mentioned as sons of Cynfyn. 
They were really half-brothers of Gruffyd. Their mother was Angharad 
(daughter of Maredud), who married Lcwelyn ab Seisyilt, and also Cynfyn. 
Probably the latter was her second husband. The " Brut," s.a. III2, explains 
the relationship. See Freeman, " Norman Conquest," ii.,p. 483, n. i. In the 
" Brut," j-.fl. 1073, Bledyn ab Cynfyn is referred to as "the man who after 
Gruffyd his brother nobly supported the whole kingdom of the Britons." 
The Gruffyd referred to is Gruffyd ab Lewelyn. 

^ See Freeman, " N. C," v. ii., p. 483-6 ; and note (?«/) in App., p. 707 
(third edition, London, 1877). Harold, it seems, began to build a hunting 
seat at Forth Iscoed. Caradog, son of that Gruffytt who claimed Deheubarth 
and who was slain by Gruffyd ab Lewelyn, made a raid upon the workmen 
engaged in the building, slew nearly all of them, and carried away the 
provisions and other things that Harold had collected. " Chronn. Ab. er 
Wig.," 1065; "Domesday," 162: "Sub iisdem prsepositis sunt iiii, villse 
wastatse per regem Caradnech. " 



174 '^HE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, v.) 

(except the Vale of Clwyd) had been part of Gruffyd's 
possessions we have no means of determining ; but it is 
clear that one of the results of the Earl's successful war was 
that the English made a further advance on Welsh territory. 
There can be no doubt that this comparatively 
great Welsh campaign largely increased the prestige of 
Harold and his house, and was one of the circumstances 
which led to his being elected king on the death of 
Eadward the Confessor early in 1066. He did not enjoy 
his high office long, for on the 14th of October in the 
same year he fell in the battle of Hastings or Senlac, 
resisting the Norman invasion, and shortly afterwards 
William, Duke of Normandy, became king of England. 
We need say nothing for our purpose as to the general 
circumstances and effect of this Norman conquest, but he 
who looks at it from a Cymric standpoint will note with 
curious interest the satisfaction of the Welsh chronicler who 
records that Harold, who had been previously "vauntingl)' 
victorious," was despoiled of his life and kingdom by 
William the Bastard " Tywysog " of Normandy, and that 
" that William " defended the kingdom of JLoegr in a great 
battle "with an invincible hand and his most noble army."^ 

As appendices to this chapter we insert in face of this 
page :— 
(A) A Chronological Table of the Kings of England and 

the Kings or Princes of Gwyned and Deheubarth. 

The dates of the accession of the latter are taken 

' " Brut,' s.a. io66. The last sentence is, " Ar G6ilim h6nn6 tlr6y diiiia6r 
ur6ydyr a yniditifynna6d teyrnas Loegr o an oichyfegedic la6 a uonliedickaf lu " 
(see " Red Book of Ilergest." vol. ii., p. 268 : Oxford edition). Though at 
the time Loegr denoted much the same area of the island as England at present, 
yet it did not connote, when the chronicler wrote, all that the word England does 
now to us. The notion that William was defending Loegr should be observed. 
The student should also notice that the application of the term tywysog io 
William in regard to Normandy shows it was then used in a very general 
sense. 



TABLE A. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF KINGS OF ENGLAND AND KINGS OR PRINCES OF THF. 
WELSH KINGDOMS OR PRINCIPALITIES, FROM 809 TO IO66. 

A.D. England. Wales. 

809 Ecgbiyht (King of Wessex). 

817 Merfyn Fiych and Esylht or Ethiit. 

827-8 Ecgbiylit (BretweaMa). 

836 ^thelwulf (King of Wessex). 

^tlielstan (King of Kent). 

S43 Rhodri Mawr. 

856 ^thelwulf (King of Kent). 

^tlielbald (ICing of Wessex). 
860 ilithelberlit. 

^tlielred. 

/Fifred tile Great. 

Death of Rliodri Mawr. 

Peace of AVedmore. 

GWYNF.O. DeHEUBARTH. 

Anarawd Cadett. 

Peace of Wedmore. Submis- 
sion of Welsh kings to .(Alfred 
during next few years. 
Eadward the Elder. 

Hovvel Da. 

Idwal Voel. 
^thelstan. 
Eadmund. 

. Death of Idwal : 

Howel Da alone. 

Eadred. 

Howel Da dies. 

leuafab Idwal and lagoab Idwal jointly. . Owain ah Hnwel Da, 

Eadvvig. 

Eadwig and Eadgar jointly. 

Eadgar alone^ . .^^Mii^i^^ta. 

■« 



871 
877 



877 



901 
907 
913 
925 
940 
941 

946 
950 

955 
957 
959 



POVVYS. 

Merfyn (?) 



(?) 



907 ^^^^^^SWepose^md killed. lago alone. 

973 (lago being expelled). Howel ab leuaf 

(Orwg). 



Jiadward tne Martyr. 
..Ethelred the Unready. 



975 
978 



992 
998 
999 
1003 
1016 
1017 



1033 
'039 



Cadwatton ab leuaf. 

CadwaHon conquered and slain by 
Maredud ab Owain. 
(?) 
[Disputed succession : civil wars]. 
Idwal ab Meurig (?) 



Eadmund Ironside : Cnut. 



Cynan ab Howel (?) 
Aedan ab Blegored* 

Aedan and his four sons killed by Lewelyn 
ab SeisyHt. 

Lewelyn ab Seisyttt 
(seemingly alone). 
Death of Lewelyn. 



Maredud ab Owain. 
Lewelyn ab Seisy+lt. 



lago ab Idwal (?). 



Harold and Harthnacnut. 



lago slain. Gwyneft seized by Gruffyd . 
ab Lewelyn. 



Eadward the Confessor. 



Lewelyn ab GruffyEt ali 
H 



Rhyderch ab lestin. 
Howel ab Edwin and 
Maredud ab Edwin 

(jointly). 
Maredud ab Edwin 

killed. Howel alone. 
Howel expelled by 

GrufTyd ab Lewelyn. 



1066 
N.B, 



Death of Lewelyn ab Gruffyd. 
„ , , .. Bledyn ab Cynfyn and RhiwaHon ab Cynfyn 

Wnham I ""^''^ J"'"' '"'"^ ^^ Harold. 

—The chronology of Welsh affairs is as to many events uncertain. We have followed the dates in the ' ' Brut," except 
where from other sources we find other dates more likely. The " Ann. Cam." assign most events to dates a year or 
two later than those of the " Brut."] 



TABLE B. 

THE HOUSE OF RHODRI. 

Rhodri Mawr 

id. 877) 



Anarawd 
('/• 913) 



Cadett 
(,/. 907) 



Idwal Voel Howel Da Clydo^^ 
(</. 940 ('^-950) ("'.917) 



Merfyii 

I 

I 

Hayaittur 

('/■ 953) 



Gwriad 
(955) 

i 



Hiniiawr Anarawd Gwgawn 
(,/. 952) (,/. 952) (,/. 955) 



Owain Dyfmval Khodri Edwin 

{r^.987) (</. 951) ('^-951) ("'•952) 



Owain Idwal 

{<l 989) (d. 960) 



Eineon 
(d. 968) 



MareduS 
{d. 998) 



Grullyc 
(?) 



CadwaHon 
('/. 964) 



A daughter = Lewelyn ab Seisyttt 
I ((/. 102 1 ) 



Gruffyd 
(,/. 1063) 



Owain Maredud Ithel 

(d. 1057) (d. 1068) ((/. 106S 



■ Edwin 
(d. 991) 



Tewdwr 
(^- 993) 



Ichvaiion 
{d- 974) 



Howel 
[d 1042 (?)) 



Maredud 
W- 1033) 



Owain 
(d. 1068) 



eurig leuaf I^go Rhodri 

. 992) (d 967) (978) ('/. 966) 



Cystenin 
(d 979) 



Maredud 
((/. 1070) 



Rhys 
{a. 1076) 



CadwaHon 

W. 985) 



Howel Drwg 
(d. 984) 



Maig 
{d 985) 



dwal 
'• 995) 

lago 
'• 1039) 



lonaval 
(d. 984) 



Howel 
{d. 1076) 



CADWALADR TO NORMAN CONQUEST. 175 

mainly from the " Brut y Tywysogion," but in some 
instances from the dates placed in brackets in Mr. E. 
Phillimore's edition of the "Annales Cambrije." 
(B) A Genealogical Table of the House of Rhodri Mawr. 
This is compiled from the "Brut" and the "Annales," and 
is, in regard to some of the persons, conjectural, owing 
to the paucity of the names in use among the Cymry. 
Where the letter " d." is prefixed in this table to a date 
it signifies " died." Where a date alone is given it 
refers to the year of entry in the " Brut." 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF WALES. 

We have in the preceding chapters set down the scanty 
facts concerning the history of the Welsh princes before 
the Norman Conquest that can be gleaned from the 
authorities to which credit ma)' be reasonably given. 
Standing alone these facts tell us little ; they form only 
a barren record of men who plaj'ed their parts in a remote 
district of Western Europe. Even if we knew them far 
better, their real interest would lie in the circumstance that 
they were the chieftains of clans and families which had 
survived from a distant past, and had established them- 
selves in Wales before the English nation was formed ; and 
to a greater extent still in the further circumstance that, 
though their descendants have become an integral part of 
the United Kingdom, they have not lost their national 
characteristics or the consciousness of their national in- 
dividualit)'. Fortunately, manuscripts containing the laws 
of the people living in some of the small Welsh kingdoms 
have been handed down to us, and from them we can 
obtain a fairly clear picture of society in Wales before the 
conquest of GwyneS by Edward I. ; and, besides what we 
can gather from their formal documents, we have in the 
works of Giraldus Cambrensis much information as to the 
habits and character of the Cymry in the twelfth century. 

Caradog of ILancarvan states that " Howel Da con- 
stituted and gave lawes to be kept through his dominions 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 177 

which were used in Wales till such time as the inhabitants 
received the lawes of England in the time of Edward the 
first, and in some places long after. These lawes are to be 
seen at this daie both in Latine and in Welsh." To this 
Powel, the editor, adds a statement of the circumstances 
attending Howel's legislation.^ 

Though there is not a word of all this in the Brut or 
Annales, there seems no doubt that the tradition handed 
down by Caradog of ILancarvan records a real historical 
transaction. The supersession of Celtic by Latin Chris- 
tianity led to the spread of the Roman organisation into 
Wales, and to the more extensive knowledge and use of 
collections of canons and penitential books among the 
Cymry.- It must thus have had the effect of familiarising 
the minds of tribal rulers with the advantage of having 
a written law. Furthermore, some conflict between the 
Roman code of morals and the tribal or customary 
system naturally arose, and the clergy found the reduction 

^ This seems taken from the preface to one of the codes. 

^ It should be observed, too, that there were canons and penitentials of 
Welsh or British origin earlier than the submission of the Welsh clergy to 
Rome. The Prefatio Gildae de peniteutia is a fragment that is assigned 
to a date before 570 (Haddan and Stubbs's "Councils, Sic." i., p. 113). 
Excerpfa quaedam de libra Davidis consists of sixteen canons supposed to be 
extracted from the Liber of St. David, and to be of a date between 550 and 600 
{ibid., i., p. 118). Sinodus Aijitilonis Britanniit and Altera siiiodus litci 
Victor iir contain canons apparently affecting to have been adopted at two 
synods held in 569, during the lifetime of St. David, at I-andewi Brefi, 
in Cardiganshire, and not far from the Roman station called Loventirm 
in the Itineraries (?7'«V/.. i.. p. 117; Lewis's Topographical Diet, of Wales). 
The date 569 comes from the " Ann. Cambr.,'" as printed in Mon. Hist. Krit., 
but in the MS. of the same chronicle, edited and published in " Y Cymmrodor," 
V. ix., by Mr. E. Phillimore, there is no entry as to these synods. Ca nones 
Wallici form a collection of laws of a civil rather than ecclesiastical character. 
They probably belong to the first half of the seventh century, and in Haddan 
and Stubbs's opinion are of Welsh origin (" Councils, &c.,"i., p. 127). Several 
of these canons are identical, or nearly identical, with texts to be found in one 
of the Latin MSS. of the Welsh Laws, printed in A. Owen's edition of the 
"Ancient Laws, &c., of Wales." See " Anc. Laws," ii., pp. 875-6; and 
cf. " Councils, &c. ," i., pp. 127 et seq. 

W.P. N 



178 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

of traditional rules to writing one means of increasing 
their power. Even if a powerful and progressive chieftain 
had no example to follow, one would not be surprised 
to find that under the circumstances in which Howel was 
placed, the idea should occur that it would be expedient 
to set down the principal rules governing his own house- 
hold, and regulating the concerns of the district over 
which he exercised tribal rights. In fact, however, any 
chieftain who had the opportunity of coming in contact 
with kings and lords of countries or districts in which 
the laws had been, to a greater or less extent, written 
down, and had obtained the sanction which in those da)'s 
was attached to manuscripts, might natural!}' feel a desire 
to act upon the precedents set by those neighbours for 
whom he had either admiration or respect. Howel had, as 
we have seen, opportunities of meeting the English kings, 
and perhaps he had made a pilgrimage to Rome. 

We find, too, that there was throughout the whole of 
Western Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries a strong 
tendency to the making of so-called codes. Probably this 
tendency had its immediate origin in the foundation of 
the Karlovingian Empire, in the legislation of Karl the 
Great, and in the notion that smaller rulers and chieftains 
could not do better than imitate one whose deeds and 
fame were so great, and whose prowess and wisdom were 
fast becoming legendar}- and heroic. Certainly we find 
in the most unexpected places in the two centuries that 
follow the coronation of Karl the Great, attempts to reduce 
customary law to written law. There is, therefore, a fair 
probability in favour of the genuineness of the tradition 
that couples the name of Howel Da with the reduction 
of Welsh tribal customs into a rigid and formal written 
system. 

The preamble prefixed to each of the codes that has 
been handed down to us in substance (though in varying 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 179 

language) records that Howel summoned four men from 
each cantref in his dominions to the Ty Gwyn, which is 
identified by modern antiquaries and far-reaching tradition 
with Whitland in Carmarthenshire. It is unnecessary to 
inquire whether the details given in the different recen- 
sions of the code are absolutely accurate. The notion that 
there is any similarity between such a gathering and later 
mediaeval Parliaments is obviously unfounded. Not only 
does our general knowledge prohibit the placing of any 
such interpretation upon the transaction, but the specific 
information afforded to us from later sources that the 
making of laws was a prerogative of the princes clearly 
shows it to be untenable. Moreover, the similarity of these 
preambles with those prefixed to other compilations, 
collectively called, in opposition to the civil and canon 
law, /e£-es barbaroruni, is inconsistent with this idea, and 
leads to the inference that some churchman, probably the 
Blegywryd (archdeacon of Llandafif), mentioned in the 
manuscripts of some of the codes, acquainted with similar 
books, had a large share in the actual transcription of that 
compilation which by the Welsh is called " hen lyfr y 
Tygwyn." This ancient manuscript has not come down 
to us, and what we have is a number of manuscripts of 
considerably later dates, presenting a general similarity 
in substance combined with considerable differences in 
detail. 

These manuscripts appear to be transcripts of older 
books, which had probably received additions from time 
to time either authoritative, as coming from a ruler, or as 
being the notes of judges or lawyers who had become the 
possessors of- documents which were naturally, from the 
difficulty of reproduction and the paucity of their number, 
extremely valuable. 

The earliest edition in print of these laws is the work 
published in 1730-by Wotton with the assistance of Moses 

N 2 



i8o THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap. Vi.) 

Williams and Clarke.^ In this volume no attempt is made 
to separate or classify those manuscripts which apply to 
different parts of the Principality. It was reserved for 
Aneurin Owen, who was commissioned to edit and publish 
the Welsh laws for the Record Commissioners, to make 
the discovery that in fact the MSS. fell into three classes 
— namely, those embodying the customs of Gwyned, of 
Demetia, and of Gwent respectively.- 

The work of Aneurin Owen, entitled " The Ancient Laws 
and Institutes of Wales," was published in 1841, and is at 
present the best and authoritative edition of these laws.^ 

We cannot describe at any length the contents of these 
volumes. The first contains (a) the Venedotian Code ; (d) the 

' Wotton (William), D. D. " Cyfreilliycu Hywel Dcla ac eiaill seu leges 
Wallicse Ecclesiasticae et Civiles Hoeli Boni et Alioium Wallioe Principum 
quas ex variis Codicibus Manuscriptis erint, Interpret at ion e Latina, Notis et 
Glossario illustravit Gulielmus Wottonus, S.T.P., adjuvante Mose Gulielmo, 
A.M., R. S. Soc. Qui et Appendicem adjccit." Londini : Typis Giilielmi 
Bowen, mdccxxx. fo. 

- See as to this point App. D. 

•'' Owen (Aneurin) : " Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales ; comprising 
Laws supposed to be enacted by Howel the Good, modified by subsequent 
regulations under the native Princes prior to the conquest by Edward the First ; 
and anomalous laws consisting principally of Institutions which by the Statute of 
Ruddlan were admitted to continue in force : with an English tiarslation of the 
Welsh Text. To which are added a few Latin transcripts containing Digests of 
the Welsh Laws, principally of the Demetian Code. With indexes and glossary." 
Lond. : Record Commissioners. 1841, fo. Another edition, 2 vols., 8vo, 
1841. Something had been done towards making these laws known between 
the publication of Wotton's and Owen's work. A portion of the laws was 
pul)lished in the "Cambrian Register," vols. i. and ii. (Lond., 1795 and 
1796), and in the 3rd vol. of the " Myvyrian Archaiology " (Lond. 1807), a 
MS. of the Laws, which is termed E in Owen's Preface, was printed, and also 
certain ]^icces headed " Trioedd Cyfraith" and " Trioedd Dyfnwal Moelmud." 
See also 2nd ed. of "Myv. Arch." (Denbigh, 1870) ; also Piobert (W^illiam), 
"Ancient Laws of Candiria," tVc. (Lond. 1823, ^^o), and Hoiiard, " Traites 
sur les coutumes Anglo-Normandes publies en Angleterre depuis le onzieme 
jusqu'au quatorzieme siecle," and " Tableau de nioeurs au dixieme siecle, ou la 
Cour et des lois de Hoel le Bon, Roi d'Aberfraw de 907-948," &c., by 
E. G. Peignot (Paris, 1832). See note above, p. 25, n. I. as to Owen's 
unsatisfactory method of dealing with the MS.S. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. i8i 

Demetian Code, and (c) the Gwentian Code. The first is 
given in the main according to a version in the Black 
Book of Chirk, a MS. now in the Peniarth collection, which 
appears to belong to the later part of the twelfth century.^ 
The other MSS. of the Venedotian Code belong to the two 
succeeding centuries. The Demetian Code is printed from 
a MS. of about the end of the thirteenth century, now in 
the British Museum. The Gwentian Code comes chiefly 
from a MS. of the fourteenth century. In his second 
volume, Owen prints two fairly full versions and one 
incomplete version of these laws from Latin MSS. These 
Latin texts are of exceptional importance, because the 
technical terms, which are rendered into Latin, connect 
the Cymric system in an intelligible way with the systems 
of other parts of Western Europe. They indeed suggest 
the question whether, as a result of the celebrated conven- 
tion of Howel Da, the laws were not first of all set down 
in Latin. Blegywryd, archdeacon of Llandaff, mentioned 
above, was the scribe selected to write the law, as being the 
most learned in all Cymru {j'r ysgolheic huotlafo Gymry oU), 
after twelve of the wisest of the Assembly had been set 
apart to make the law (y deudec doythaf o hyny aj'neiUtu y 
6)ieuthyr y gyfreith). 

Assuming, as we must, that Blegywryd was conversant 
with the Welsh language, it may be that he recorded the 
result of the formation of the law by these twelve wise 
men in Latin, and that the laws' so settled were afterwards 
translated into Welsh. If it be true, as stated in the 
Preface to the Demetian Code, that Howel and others went 
to Rome to read the law before the Pope that he might 
see if there was anything contrary to the law of God in it,^ 

' So says A. Owen, but we understand that Mr. Gwenogvryn Evans thinks 
it is later. See, however. App. D. below. 

" See Owen, i., p. 343. Cf. in the Ven. Code tiie Preface to Book iii., 
Owen, i., p. 217. The Venedotian Code (^ook ii., c. xvi. 2) says, "The 
ecclesiastical law says again that no son is to have the patrimony but the eldest 



i82 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

and obtained the Pope's confirmation, there must have been 
a Latin version in existence at that time. But according 
to the Demetian Preface, the king ordered three law-books 
to be prepared ; one for the use of the daily Court, to 
remain continually with himself ; another for the Court 
of Dinevvvr ; the third for the Court of Aberfifraw,^ and in 
one of the MSS. of the Demetian Code, towards the end of 
the Preface, the names of the twelve laymen who wefe set 
apart to make the law — a kind of committee —are given. - 
The statements of this Preface (seemingly compiled at 
different times, and not affecting to be the Preface of the 
original book) are to some extent confirmed b}- the Preface 
to the third book of the Venedotian Code.'' 

There lorwerth ab Madog is represented a'^ having 
collected the Book (J.e., the third or Proof Book) from 
the Book of Cyvnerth ab Morgeneu, and from the Book of 
Gwair ab Rhuvon, and from the Book of Goronwy ab 
Moreidig,^ and the old Book of the White House (" a 
hen lyfr y Ty Gw)'n ") ; and, in addition to those, from the 
best books he found likewise in Gwyned, Powys, and 
Deheubarth. There is no improbability in all this ; for the 
books of the la)' Welsh judges or lawyers cannot have 

born to the father by the married wife ; the law of Howe), however, adjudges 
it to the youngest son as well as the eldest, and decides that sin of the father 
or his illegal act is not to be brought against the son as to his patrimony.'" 
This important difference between the law of the Church and the law of 
Howel, of course, is evidence against the story that the latter had received 
Papal confirmation. 

' Owen, i., p. 340. 

- It may be worth while to note them : — " Morgeneu, the judge ; Cyvnerth 
his son ; Gwair, son of Rhuvon ; Goronwy, son of Moreidig ; Ce\vy<l, the 
judge ; Idig, the judge ; Ch\il)eri the aged ; (Jwrnerth the grey, his son ; 
Meftwon, son of Cerise; Gwgon 01 Dyfed ; Bledrws, son of Bleiftyd ; 
Gwyn, the niaer, the man who was the owner of Glantavwyn. to whom 
the house belonged in which the law was made." 

•• Owen, i., pp. 216 — 21S. 

■• It will be noticed that Cyvnerth, Gwair, and Goronwy are three of the 
twelve laymen referred to in the Demetian Preface. See note 2 above. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 183 

been in Latin, and so we may take it that men who had 
actually taken part in the convention at the White House 
had in their possession MSS. of the law in the Welsh 
languare. This is not, of course, inconsistent with there 
having been a contemporary Latin version.^ 

There is, however, great reason for doubting whether 
Howel's visit to Rome had any connection with his 
legislation. The story as given in the Preface to the 
Demetian Code is as follows : — " After the law had been 
made and written, Howel, accompanied by princes of 
Cymru, and Lambert bishop of Menevia, and Mordav 
bishop of Bangor, and Cebur bishop of St. Asaph, and 
Blegywryd archdeacon of Llandaff, went to Rome to Pope 
Anastatius to read the law and to see if there were 
anything contrary to the law of God in it ; and as there was 
nothing militating against it,~ it was confirmed, and was 
called the law of Howel Da from that time forward." 
The only Anastatius who was Pope during Howel's time 
was Anastatius HI., who held the Papacy from 909 to 911. 
Both the Brut and Annales record that Howel went to 
Rome ; the former puts the date as 926 and the latter two 
years later. The Venedotian and Demetian Prefaces describe 
Howel as king of all Cymru,^ but it seems clear he was not 
in possession of Gwyned till Idwal died in 941.'* Even, 

' For some further observations on the question whether the laws were 
first written down in Latin, see App. D. 

^ This was not. however, the case. See below, p. 210. 
'^ The Gwentian Preface simply calls him king of Cyniru. 
^ The Demetian Preface adds to the account of the journey to Rome : " The 
year of the Lord Jesus Christ at that time 914. And here are the verses 
composed by Blegywryd thereupon in testimony of that event : — 
Explicit editus legibus liber bene finitus 
Quem regi scripcit Blangoridus et quoque fuit 
Hweli turbe doctor tunc legis in urbe 
Cornando cano tunc judice cotidiano 
Rex dabit ad partem dexteram nam sumerat artem." 
These verses, in a very slightly different form, are to be found in a Latin M.S. 
in the Bodleian (A. Owen's Preface, p. xxxiii.). The text adds " Gornerth 



1 84 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

therefore, if the story of the visit to Rome to get the Pope's 
confirmation be true, we cannot accept the date assigned or 
the name of the Pope as accurate. We see no reason to doubt 
that Howel paid a visit to Rome, as mentioned in the 
Chronicles ; but, seeing that Idwal was then reigning in 
Gwyned, we think it unHkely that the Ty Gvvyn conven- 
tion could have been held before that event, for men from 
the cymwds of the North were summoned by Howel to 
attend it— a course which could hardly have been taken by 
the South Welsh prince without difficulties with his North 
Welsh cousin had the latter been then alive. The most 
probable date of the transaction we are considering is there- 
fore 942 or 943, and the notion that Howel's visit to Rome 
had anything to do with his law-making looks like a later 
invention.^ 

The contents of Owen's second volume (apart from the 
Latin versions of the laws of Howel Da and the statute of 
Rhudlan) are not of the same interest or importance as the 
codes. They consist of comparative!)' late legal maxims, 
commentaries, and illustrations, which supplement and 
explain, without essentially modifying, the codes. He also 
prints specimens of pleadings and other matter of interest. 
From a literary point of view Book xiii., entitled " Trioed 
Dyvnwal Moelmud a elwir Trioed y cludau a Thrioed y 
cargludau" (i.e., "the triads of Dyfnwal Moelmud, which 
are called the triads of motes and triads of car-motes "),~ 

ti6yd mabC;6yberi bach (cornandiis canus filius gwiberi parvi) erat judex curiae 
de Dinevwr in tempore Hywali Da." As to the status of the Judge of the 
Court, see below, p. 198. 

1 It should be noticed that in tlie Venedotian l*i eface there is not a word said 
about the visit to Rome or the Papal confirmation. 

- See Owen, vol. ii., p. 474. For further remarks on these triads and 
Owen's translation of the title, see Appendix D, below, p. 648. On p. 482 the 
second set of triads are called " the triads of tlie social and federate state ; and 
which are the ancient triads of the privileges and customs of the Cymry before 
they lost their privilege and their crown, through the rapacity, fraud, and 
treachery of the Saxons." 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 185 

naturally attracts attention. The tract is printed from a 
MS. which concludes thus : " And I, Evan son of Evan of 
Trev Bryn in Morganwg, transcribed this from the old 
books of Sir Edward Mansell of Margam, when the year of 
Christ our Lord was 1685." We may believe that Evan ab 
Evan was not the author; but the style and the internal 
evidence show that the work is not one to which any great 
age can be ascribed. The whole production is unlike in style 
to the genuine law-books that have survived, and seems more 
a literary exercise than a practical treatise. The author, 
however, was acquainted with the old Welsh legal system 
and its technical terms, and many of the triadic texts embody 
really ancient maxims. No great weight can, however, be 
attached to the treatise. So far as it agrees with the codes 
it has no special value ; when its texts differ from the codes, 
or extend the doctrines they state expressly or impliedly, 
they cannot be deemed to have any more authority than 
may be given to a late commentary not prepared for 
practical use ; especially as there is a good deal that 
suggests that the real object of the writer was to magnify the 
importance and status of the bards in the old Welsh polity. 

To sum up, we may say : — 

The oldest MS. of the laws of Howel being of the 
twelfth century, we may be sure that we have no authentic 
copy of the old Book of the White House. The earliest 
MSS. bear marks of having had themselves a history. 
The Black Book of Chirk refers to amendments made by 
Bledyn ab Cynfyn, who reigned from 1063 to 1073, and 
the thirteenth century MS. of the Demetian Code makes 
mention of alterations and additions by Lord Rhys ab 
Gruffyd, who flourished from 1137 to 1197. But there is 
no reason for not carrying back the first setting down in 
writing of the Welsh customs to the time of Howel Ba. 

Nor is there any real doubt that these bodies of law 
consist of custumals which were once in actual operation. 



i86 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

In support of this the high authority of Sir Henry Maine ^ 
may be cited, and apart from authority the fact that the 
documents disclose a fairl}- complete system of legal 
terminology in the Cymric language, while the general 
contents describe a tribal s\'stem such as what is known 
of other races leads us to think may have been in force 
among the Cymric people, is practically conclusive of the 
genuineness of these laws.- 

Much controversy has arisen upon the question whether 
the English law is, as a whole, derived from Welsh 
law, or whether these Welsh laws are simply conscious 
imitations of the Anglo-Saxon laws. We do not affect to 
enter upon this question, but we may observe that we think 
it extremely likel}' that there were survivals of British 
customs among the people who afterwards became con- 
solidated into the English-Norman kingdom. On the other 
hand, we think it quite probable, and in some instances 
certain, that Howel or those who assisted him intentionally 
adopted some rules or descriptions either from English 
or foreign bodies of written law. It cannot escape notice 
that in precisel}' that part of the codes where we might 
expect imitation and legislation in the modern sense of 
the term, that is, the making of new rules for changed 

' " Early History of Institutions," p]i. 5, 6. 

- As to the interpretation of these Welsli Laws the following works should 
be consulted : — Seebnhm's " Tribal System in Wales," and " The English 
Village Community " ; Palmer's " History of Ancient Tenures in the Marches 
of North Wales " ; Hubert Lewis's "Ancient Laws of Wales," edited by 
Professor Lloyd, M.A. ; Ashton's " Hywel Ha a'i Gyfreithiau "' ; Walter's 
" Das Alte Wales"; De Valroger's " Les Celtes : La Gaule Celtique " ; 
Skene's " Celtic Scotland" ; Fowlers " Some Account of the Ancient Laws 
and Institutes of Wales " ; Brynmor-Jones's "The Study of the Welsh Laws" 
(articles in Cymru Fyd, 1889), and "The Criminal Law of Mediaeval Wales" 
(South Wales University College Magazine, 1890). See also Glasson's 
"Histoire du Droit et des Institutions de I'Angleterre," iii., pp. 609 cf se<j. ; 
Warrington's "History of Wales," pp. 164-190 ; and Meyrick's "History 
of Cardiganshire," Int., pp. Ixvii.-lxxi. For particulars of some of these 
works see Appendix to Report, pp. 81-2. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 187 

circumstances, there is a remarkable similarity with the 
corresponding part of the Karlovingian system. If it 
be true, as indicated above, that Howel had obtained 
the rule, or rather over-lordship of the whole of Wales, 
we might easily understand that one of the first things 
which would occupy his attention would be the organisa- 
tion of his own Court or household ; and it is, in at least 
one of the codes, the completeness with which the rights 
and duties of the king himself, of members of his family, 
of his servants and attendants, are set forth that first 
strikes the reader. Now, here in this organisation we 
find a noticeable resemblance to the organisation created 
by Karl the Great. Probably this emperor and his advisers 
had themselves before their eyes the model of the Byzantine 
Court, but, however this may be, one cannot help coming 
to the conclusion that, directly or indirectly, the Welsh 
organisation was very largely influenced by intentional 
imitation of the Karlovingian precedent. We have no 
means, of course, of determining whether the model which 
Howel and his assistants set before them was the Prankish 
system or the Court of ^thelstan, but we are inclined to 
think that what is found in these Welsh books is not wholly 
derived from observation of the latter. 

But in regard to other portions of the customary system 
disclosed in what we may, without inaccuracy, call Howel's 
legislation, the traces of conscious imitation from other 
sources are few, if any. One is rather struck, when com- 
paring them with the so-called Anglo-Saxon laws, say the 
laws of I{dward the Confessor, with dissimilarities rather 
than with similarities. No doubt many notions and con- 
ceptions are very like in or common to both sets of laws, 
but the same is true as between the W^elsh laws and the 
Irish laws. It would be in our judgment entirely wrong to 
infer an English derivation from mere identity or similarity 
of usaee and idea. The truth seems rather to be that 



i88 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

all the races forming part of the Indo-European group 
started with common ideas of duty and of tribal organisation. 
In some cases the process of disintegration of the tribal 
system proceeded more rapidly than in others ; in one 
case the line of development went in one, and in another 
in another direction. Or, possibly, while the process of 
evolution was the same in every case, while every race went 
through the same typical changes or stages of growth, cir- 
cumstances interfered to alter the rate of the process. 
Howsoever this may be, forming the best judgment we 
can, we think that these ancient Welsh laws are truthful 
evidence of the condition of society during the centuries 
in which they were in operation in Wales and Monmouth- 
shire, and that, apart from the organisation of the Court, 
they represent a natural and spontaneous growth of 
civilisation among the Cymric tribes. 

Treating, then, these compilations as authentic evidence 
of the condition of the Cymry in the tenth centur}', we are 
enabled to draw a picture of society in its broad outlines in 
the days of Welsh independence. Looking at the system 
as a whole it must be described as still tribal. Political 
and property rights, as well as the status of individuals, 
depended upon a theory of blood relationship. The whole 
communit}' is looked upon as an aggregate of tribes or 
clans and families, forming a ruling aristocrac}', under whom 
other classes of lower status are grouped. The form of 
government, so far as the term " government " can be used 
at all, was monarchical. In theory the king t)f Gw}'ned or 
Aberffraw was head of the organisation.^ He himself 

' This seems to have been a principle of the Welsh law. It is Mr. Seebohm's 
view (" Tribal System in Wales," pp. 135 — 6) ; but the codes give no certain 
evidence on the point. The most explicit text seems tliat in Book x. of the 
" Anomalous Laws" (Owen, vol. ii., p. 585). There Aberffraw is said to receive 
Ahclidtyrti dues from Dinevwr (South Wales) and from Gvvynva (Powys), and 
the king of Loegr is to receive three-score and three pounds from the king of 
Aberffraw. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 189 

recognised the over-lordship of the king of England. 
Regularly, all other chieftains, princes, or kings in Cymru 
were subject to the lord of Aberffraw. The result is that 
there was a more or less well-understood hierarchy of kings 
or princes, which presents remarkable analogies to a feudal 
kingdom. In the chronicles sometimes one individual is 
represented as king over the whole of Wales. We have 
seen that Howel -Da is an instance in point, but there 
were always other kings or princes who are represented as 
exercising power in different districts of the territory, and 
enjoying various regal privileges and prerogatives. There 
does not appear to have been any alteration in theory 
caused by the division and re-division of the existing Cymric 
districts among the kingly families. What is really meant 
by saying that Howel ©a was lord of all Wales is that 
certain districts usually held by kings or princes of other 
royal or princely kinsmen were possessed directly by 
Howel, who received the dues and enjoyed the privileges 
ordinarily received and enjoyed by the latter. That is, it 
really amounted to Howel's taking possession of all the 
rights and privileges of the king of Powys and the king of 
Gwyned, as well as those of the king of South Wales. 
The kingship of Powys and the kingship of Gwyned" were 
assumed to continue to exist, though the kingship was in 
the hands of one man. Similar later instances of an 
analogous kind readily present themselves, e.g:, after the 
conquest of Wales the mere attainder of a lord of Glamorgan, 
and the consequent forfeiture of his possessions to the Crown, 
followed by the king's taking possession, did not amount 
to an extinction of the lordship ; it simply came to the 
king's administering Glamorgan until he re-granted it to 
one of his subjects. Whatever the theory, the state of 
Cymru was as a rule very unsettled and sometimes 
anarchical. The position and rights of its kings and 
its political organisation, cannot be understood without 



igo THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

reference to the territorial divisions of and the different 
classes of persons in the country. 

Cymru was divided into the districts called cantrefs and 
cymivds, the origin and character of which we have dis- 
cussed above. The exact significance of the cantref it is 
very difficult to determine, for in the laws we are dealing 
with it is the cymwd which is the unit of organisation. In 
the time of Howel the boundaries of the cantrefs and 
cymwds were evidentl}' known and settled for practical 
purposes. To understand the method of government from 
day to day the cymwd is the area on which one must fix one's 
eye. The cantref, as it then existed, was in all probability 
a district over which a lord {arglwy?t), appointed by the 
king of the country {gzvlad) of which it formed part, ruled 
with a set of officers whose rights and duties corresponded 
with those of the king's household. The lord ofa cantref or 
cymwd must not be confounded with another kind of chief- 
tain, the head of a kindred {ccncdl) with whom the laws make 
us acquainted. The lord might, of course, be a penkenedl 
in reference to his own kindred, but his position as aj-glwyd 
was due, as it would seem, to his appointment by the king 
of, or the ro}'al kindred ruling over, the country in which 
the cantref or c)'mwd was situate. Sometimes several 
cantrefs were combined under one lord who called him.self 
tywysog (prince) or brenin (king), but in any case, if we 
may judge from the laws, each cymwd and cantref main- 
tained its separate organisation. The lord delegated to 
certain officers the discharge of some of his functions. In 
ever}' c}'mwd there was a }}iacr (in the Latin text, prce- 
positus) and a aif/ghctior (in the Latin text, canccllarius\ 
discharging prescribed governmental duties, and in each 
cymwd a court was held b}' them with the aid of other officers. 

We cannot here attempt to give a complete anal}'sis or 
full exposition of the legal system developed in these 
treatises ; nor do we think it necessary, until they have 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 191 

been further examined and studied, to suggest the points 
of comparison between them and the Irish and early 
Enghsh laws. We do not in the least wish to disparage 
the value of " the comparative method " in its application 
to the history of institutions ; but before we can compare 
systems with a view to generalisation we ought to know a 
good deal about the systems themselves — a thing surely 
obvious enough but often forgotten. So what we wish to 
do now is to show the leading features of the Cymric law 
as we find them in these old books. 

As might have been expected, the codes disclose com- 
munities containing different classes of persons, or perhaps 
we ought to say, different castes. Speaking broadly, 
. braint (status) depended on birth. The primary distinc- 
tion is between tribesmen and non-tribesmen, between men 
of Cymric and those of non-Cymric blood. The Cymry 
themselves were divided into: (i) a royal class consisting 
of men belonging to families or kindreds {cenedloe^) of- 
kingly or princely braint (status) who had over divers areas 
of Cymru special rights ; (2) a noble class called in the 
codes sometimes uchehvyr (literally, "high-men"), sometimes 
breyi'iaid, sometimes gwyrda, and in the Latin versions 
nobiliores and optiniates ; and (3) innate tribesmen styled 
bonedigion (gentlemen). 

Below the tribesmen in the scale were unfree persons 
denominated taeogion or eiHtion (in Latin, nativi or villani), 
corresponding roughly to the villeins of English law. 
Lowest of all was a class of menial or domestic slaves 
{caethion")} 

^ Taeog is of the same origin as ty (house), and was probably suggested by 
villanus. Atitiid means one of another people or country — a foreigner, and is 
equivalent to Anglo-Saxon el-theod. It has nothing to do with aitit, which in 
the early laws is usually mab eyiit (eigifd), or mab ei-ir or mab eiift = z. shaven 
fellow — i.e., a slave, plural meybyon eiiiion. The later spellings mab aiHt 
and aittt without the viab, plural eiition, make their appearance in the Triads. 
The word has its congeners in ciHio (the act of shaving), and eH-yn (a razor), 
Irish altiDi. 



iq2 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

But quite apart from these — the primary classes con- 
templated — forming the legal organisation, the laws deal 
with strangers residing temporarily in or settling within 
the limits of a Cymric area. Such strangers were called 
aUtudioti, and though there was some similarity in the 
position of the two classes, the)' must not be confounded 
with the eiUtion. 

The degree of the atttud in his own country made no 
necessary difference to his position in the Cymric system. 
If a Mercian, whether noble or non-noble, settled in 
Gwyned, he was in either case an atttud. For the in- 
dividual the line that separated him and the Cymro could 
not originally be passed.^ But there is evidence to show 
that, in regard to South Wales, the residence in Cymru of 
an atttud and his descendants continued till the ninth 
generation conferred Cymric status upon the family ; and 
also that intermarriage with innate C)'mraeses generation 
after generation made the descendants of an atttud innate 
Cymry in the fourth generation. Late texts give also 
examples of artificial methods of securing Cymric kinship, 
e.g., by joining a kindred in the work of avenging the 
death of a kinsman. 

The Cymry of full blood deemed themselves descended 
from a common ancestor ; but they were divided into 
numerous kindreds, each of which formed a kind of privileged 
oligarchy, but subordinate to the kindreds of ro}'al status. 

The kindred {cenedl) \\as an organised and self-govern- 
ing unit, having at its head a pcnkcnedl (chief of the 
kindred). The Welsh cenedl comprised the descendants 
of a common ancestor to the ninth degree of descent. The 
penkenedl, sa}' the Laws, must not be either a maer (^r 
cangheHorof the king, but an uchehvr of the country ; and his 
status must not be acquired b}' maternit}'. He has to pay a 

' It would seem, however, that if the king conferred office on him, he 
assumed llie braint (status, privilege) attaching to it. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 193 

tribute yearly to the arghvyd or higher chieftain. He must 
be an efficient man, being the eldest of the efficient men of 
the kindred, and being the chief of a household {petiteulu), 
or a man with a wife and children by legitimate marriage. 
He was assisted by three other officers, the representative 
{teisbanteulii) whose duty was to mediate in Court and 
assembly, and in combat within the tribe, and to act for 
the kindred in every foreign affair ; the avenger {dialwr) who 
led the kindred to battle, and pursued evil-doers, brought 
them before the Court, and punished them according to its 
sentence ; the avoucher {ardehvr'), who seemingly entered 
into bonds and made warranty on behalf of the kindred. 

Under the penkenedl were grouped the chiefs of house- 
hold belonging to the kindred, and every one of the kindred 
was a man and a kin to him {jni wr ac yn gar ido). ■ 

We are now, in the light of these legal rules, able to form 
a fairly clear notion of the original Cymric cenedl. Con- 
sidered at any one moment in the abstract, it consisted of 
a group of blood relations descended from a common 
ancestor. Observed in more concrete fashion, it w^as an 
aggregate of families residing in separate homesteads, at 
the head of each of which was a penteulu (chief of the 
household). It was a self-governing unit under the chief- 
tainship of the penkenedl, assisted by the officers and for 
some purposes by a council of elders. 

There seems to have been some kind of court for 
redressing wrongs done by members of one household to 
members of another household within the cenedl ; but the 
discipline of each household was maintained by its penteulu 
(chief of the household). The household in its structure 
resembled the " patriarchal family " under a patria potestas 
more nearly than the " joint family " of some systems, with 
its joint ownership under a chief who is only pj'inms inter 
pares} The sanctity of each hearth was respected, and 

^ Seebohm, "Tribal System," p. 95. 
W.P. O 



194 ^HE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

each pcntcnlu had a right of nawct (protection) within 
defined hmits, which varied according to his status. 

It should be noticed that according to the fundamental 
ideas of this system the cenedl was not a rigid or final 
corporation or entity formed once for all ; it was an 
ever-changing organism ; every poitculu was a possible 
founder of a complete cenedl. As Mr. Seebohm says, the 
tribal system was " always forging new links in an endless 
chain, and the links of kindred always overlapped one 
another."^ Furthermore, it should be remarked that the 
kindreds, the chiefs of which were uchelwyr, were subordi- 
nate in the complete structure of Cymric society to kindreds 
built up in analogous fashion of the privileged or royal 
status, the members of which in theory could trace their 
descent from Cuneda the gwledig. 

Such being, so far as we may infer it with some con- 
fidence from these laws, the original structure of the Cymric 
cenedl, we observe that the system (except, perhaps, so far 
as the theory of tir givelyawg^- is an essential part of it) has 
no necessary connection with any particular area. It seems 
indeed as well adapted for a nomadic as for a settled race, 
and is a personal rather than a territorial organisation. But 
it is evident the final settlement of the kindreds in a given 
territor)', even if that territory were previously unoccupied, 
would lead to gradual modifications of custom, and the altera- 
tions would come more speedily when the tribe or tribes to 
which the kindreds belonged conquered and settled upon 
land already in the possession of men of other races who 
were not extirpated, but placed in an inferior position by the' 
victorious immigrants. This probability is confirmed by the 
laws of Howel. As we have seen, when the laws were set 
down in writing, the Cymry had been settled in Wales for 
several centuries, and the codes show that great changes 

1 "Tribal System," p. 85. 

- y.t'., familj-laiid. See below, \>. 210. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 195 

must have taken place in the legal system. Many of 
the privileges and functions formerly appertaining to the 
penkenedL had come to belong to the arglwyd (lord) of 
the cymwd. There had arisen a court of the cymvvd 
regulated by a maer and cangheitor (officers appointed 
by an arglwyd or the king or prince above him) ; the 
canghelior had the right to appoint a rhingyU (the sum- 
moner of the court — seemingly a registrar or clerk). The 
two chief officers superintended the eifttion or taeogion, and 
they had to see that the king's rights in his waste land 
in the cymwd were respected.. The son of an uchelwr^ 
or innate bonedig at fourteen became, the man of the 
arglwyd of the cymwd, and at twenty-one received 
land from him in consideration of military service.- In 
South Wales the uchelwyr of the cymwd were judo-es in 
its court.-^ The chiefs of household had become practically 
landowners as against all the world, except members of 
the household. The rights of the chief of household to 
his ty'dyn, and the lands in the occupation of himself and 
other members of his household were termed his o-wely 
(literally, "bed or couch"), and on his death the family 
land was divided between his^ descendants in the manner 
described below.^ So that it seems safe to say that the 

1 See the chapter on the Duties of the Maers and Canghettors, " Anc. Laws 
i., p. 188. 

- "Anc. Laws," i., p. 90; ii., p. 211. 

3 "Anc. Laws," ii., p. 567. In Gwyne* and Powys, it is said, in the 
Demetian Code, the king placed five officers in each court — a viaer, cana/iefior 
rhuigyiii (summoner), a priest to write pleadings, and one judge by virtue of 
office ; and four like the preceding in each court in South ^^ ales, and many 
judges, that is, every owner of land, as they were before the time of Howel the 
Good, by privilege of land without office. " Anc. Laws," i. 405. 

■* There might be several ty'dynau (homesteads) on the land occupied by a 
penteulu and his family. They seem to have had grazing rights over sometimes 
several and distant districts. The descendants of the penteulu were, durino- his 
life, in a subordinate position as to land. They had rights of maintenance, and 
were capable of owning da (cattle or movable property), and they had rights 
of grazing cattle in the common herd and of co-aration with the other member 

O 2 



196 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

cymwd approximated to the manor or lordship of EngHsh 
law, though its structure in the tenth century appears to 
have been a natural development, and not an imitation of 
other systems ; and that the relations of the king to the 
arglivy'di, and of the latter to the men of the cymwd, were 
tending to become of a feudal character. 

But though the cenedl was by the time of Howel to 
some extent disintegrated, and the general organisation of 
C}'mric society had assumed a territorial aspect, it still 
played an important part in the legal system and was 
recognised for certain purposes. Now we ma}- here 
mention that within the cenedl {i.e., kindred to the ninth 
degree from the common ancestor), smaller groups of 
kinsmen were looked upon as what we ma\' call, for want 
of a better term, legal entities. These were groups of the 
kindred to the fourth and the seventh degrees of descent 
from a common ancestor. The first group included a given 
person, his sons, his grandsons, and his great-grandchildren. 
This group formed the unit within which succession to land 
of the gively of the given person could take place according 
to certain rules. It was also the group of kinsmen upon 
which joint responsibilit)' for personal injuries short of 
homicide rested ; or in other words if a man did a wrong 

of the gwely (Seebolim, "Tribal SysteTii," p. 91). 'jyiiyn seems to mean a 
"house-hill, ' i.e., a place suited for a licnise. 7)' (a house), in Old Welsh, 
tig, is for tcgios, corresponding to the Greek, ri-yos (a house). P>om the word 
tig is partly derived the word ty<tyn, pi. tyctyiiau. Tyctyn occurs in the Laws 
(ii. 780) as tygdyii, and its dyii is perhaps the Welsh equivalent of the Irish 
dinn (a place, i.e., cdifuia patris stti). The Gwentian version has eissyXtyn 
(Laws, i. 750, 760) : see also Laws, ii. 685, 688, where we have essy<tyn, which 
is in the j^resent day reduced to sydyn. This involves an .f form corresponding 
to Greek, arfyos as contrasted with reyos with, perhaps, a prefix ad or ecs ; but 
t'issydy/i, sydyn seems to have the same meaning as tyTfyii, the difierence being 
one of dialect. In modern Welsh place-names tydyii is reduced to tyn, as in 
I'yn yr Oiineii for Tydyn yr Oitiicn, and Tyn Siarlas for Tydyn Siarlas 
(Charles' tenement). See as to the meaning and use oi diit. Professor Lloyd's 
paper on " Welsh Place-names " in " Y Cymnirodor," xi. 22 ; and Mr. E. 
Phillimore's note, ihid., p. 60. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. igy 

to another which came within the definition of saraad 
(Hterally, "insult"), his kinsmen, as far as second cousins, 
were jointly liable with him for the payment of the pre- 
scribed compensation in cattle or money.^ It also seems that 
this group was responsible for the marriage of daughters.^ 
Lastly, as will be made clear below, there was no re-division 
of the ancestor's gwely after the second cousins had divided 
it, but the members of the group were still liable to jointly 
warrant their common title to their respective shares." 

The functions of the group of kindred extending to the 
seventh degree of descent can only be properly understood 
after the law relating to homicide between kindreds has 
been explained. 

Bearing these general principles in mind, let us see what 
these laws have to sa}- about the royal or princely kindreds. 
Each of the codes deals first of all with the Cyvreithiau y 
Lys (Laws of the Court), that is, with the organisation of 
the household of the king, but it is in the Venedotian 
Code that the matter is best and most fully dealt with. 
According to that treatise Howel appointed twenty-four 
servants of the Court, of which the following is a list : — 

(i) Penteulu {Chief of the HouseJwld). 
(ii) Effeiryat TEULU {Priest of the Househotd). 
(iii) Dysteyn {Steward). 
(iv) Penhebogyt {Chief Falconer). 
(v) BRA.HUDUR Ys {fudge of the Court). 
(vi) Penguastrahut {Chief Grootn). 
(vii) GuASTAVEL {Page of the Chainber). 

' " Anc. Laws," i., pp. 231 and 703. 

^ It seems to have formed for this purpose a kind of family council. If they 
gave a daughter of one within the circle to an aittud, and her sons committed a 
wrong for which sdraad was payable, the group became liable (" Anc. Laws," 
i., pp. 208 — 212). Mr. Seebohm aptly refers to the tale of " Kulhwch and 
01 wen" in the " Mabinogion." When Yspaaden Penkawr is asked to give 
his daughter in marriage, he answered, " Her four great-grandmothers and 
her four great-grandfathers are yet alive ; it is needful that I take counsel of 
them." 

^ " Anc. Laws," ii. 657 ; and see i., pp. 208-10. 



^igS THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

(viii) Bart teulu {Bard of the Household). 

(ix) GosTECHUR (Si/e7ttiary). 
(x) Penkynyt (Chief Hitii/siiiaii). 

(xi) Medyt {Mead Brewer). 

(xii) Medyc [Medicincr). 
(xiii) Tkuhyat (Butler). 
(xiv) Drysaur (Door-uurrd). 

(xv) Coc (Cw/C-). 
(xvi) Kanuyiyt (Candle-bearer). 

And eight officers of the queen : — 

(i) Dysteyn (Ste7vard). 
(ii) Efkeiryat (Priest). 
(iii) Penguastrahut (Chief Groom). 
(iv) GUASTAVKL (/'rt^^ of the Chamber). 
(v) Lavoruyn (Hajidmaid). 
(vi) Drysaur (Dooru<ard). 
(vii) Coc (Cw/('). 
(viii) Kanuviyt (Caudle-bearer).'^ 

The rights, privileges, and duty of each of these officers are 
gone into with great detail. The names of the offices give 
sufficient indication of the sphere of work assigned to their 
holders, except in the case of the chief of the household. 
The penteulu was required to be of the blood royal, and 
appears to have had, subject to the king, and especially in 
the king's absence, the superintendence of the Court. The 
judge of the Court must not be confounded with the judges 
of cymwds or cantrefs. He was judge of the king's Court ; 
" he is to administer justice to the Court, the household, and 
to whoever pertains to them without fee," but he also on 
occasion examined other judges, and heard appeals from 
them, or dispensed justice in conjunction with them.- 

Besides the twent}'-four officers we have enumerated 

' We have tjiven the trai slatioii of the Welsh names, following A. Owen. 
But, of course, the nature of the chief offices becomes more intelligible when 
we use more courtly terms. Thus, the Penteulu is the "Mayor of the Palace," 
the Brahudur Lys "the Chief Justice" or" Justiciary," and the Penguastrahut 
the " Master of the Horse," of corresponding Western European Courts. 
Dysteyn, in Mod. Welsh distain, is the Anglo-Saxon disc-thegu or disc-then, 
literally dish-servant, but meaning at Court "seneschal." 

- Ven. (Jode, i., c. xi. ; "Ancient Laws," i., p. 29. 



ANCIENT LAl^S AND CUSTOMS. igg 

there were eleven servants who are described as officers 
in the Court by custom and usage : (i.) groom of the 
rein ; (ii.) foot-holder ; (iii.) land maer ; (iv.) apparitor ; 
(v.) porter; (vi.) watchman ; (vii.) woodman ; (viii.) baking- 
woman ; (ix.) smith of the Court ; (x.) chief of song ; 
(xi.) laundress. The distinction drawn between the first 
set of officers — those " appointed " by Howel, and the 
latter class, the customary officers — and the descriptions of 
the two sets of ministers, indicate that Rowel's innovations 
were intended to increase the pomp of the Court, and also 
that the authority of the kingly office was being enlarged. 

One of the most interesting texts of this Book of the 
Law is that on Priodolio7t Z^c^^ (appropriate places). It is 
what in modern times we should call a " table of pre- 
cedence," and though nominally it only applies to the 
arrangement of the household at the meals in the king's 
hall, it really determined and indicated the order of the 
different officers. The arrangement cannot be understood 
without stating the character of the house of a Welsh 
chieftain. Fortunately Giraldus Cambrensis has given us 
a fairly minute description of the typical Welsh house 
of his time, and further material for its reconstruction is 
also furnished by the laws we are considering, so that 
we can ascertain what it was like in the later period of 
the tribal system. 

The evidence of these two authorities has been sum- 
marised by Mr. Seebohm, and we cannot do better 
than quote his description : ^ " The tribal house was built 
of trees newly cut from the forest. A long straight pole 
is selected for the roof-tree. Six well-grown trees with 
suitable branches, apparently reaching over to meet one 
another, and of about the same size as the roof-tree, are 
stuck upright in the ground at even distances in two 
parallel rows, three in each row. Their extremities bending 
' See " English Village Community," pp. 239-40 ; " Kepoil," p. 691. 



200 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

over make a Gothic arch, and crossing one another at the 
top each pair makes a fork, upon which the roof-tree is 
fixed. These trees supporting the roof-tree are called 
gavaels, forks, or columns, and they form the nave of the 
tribal house. Then, at some distance back from these rows 
of columns or forks, low walls of stakes and wattle shut in 
the aisles of the house, and over all is the roof of branches 
and rough thatch, while at the aisles behind the pillars are 
placed beds of rushes, called gzvelyau {Iccfi), on which the 
inmates sleep. The footboards of the beds between the 
columns form their seats in the da}'time. The fire is lighted 
on an open hearth in the centre of the nave between the 
two middle columns." ^ This tribal house was the living 
and the sleeping place of the household. The kitchen and 
buildings for cattle and horses were separate and detached, 
and it seems that, if not the whole set of buildings, )'et the 
set of buildings with more or less completeness was dupli- 
cated for summer purposes on the higher grazing grounds. 
The house of persons of smaller importance was not, of 
course, so extensive. Giraldus describes the ordinary house 
as circular, with the fireplace in the centre and beds of 
rushes all round it, on which the inmates slept with their 
feet towards the fire.~ 

In the king's house screens extending from each middle 
pillar to the side walls divided the hall into an upper and a 
lower part ; the former part appears to have been raised so 
as to form a dais, upon which the king and nine of his 
officers were seated, while in the other part four officers and 
the rest of the household were placed.'^ The text is curious 
and deserves attention : — 

1 See also "Arch. Cambr." 3id sen, vol. iv. (1858), p. 195 ; and 4th ser., 
vol. X. (1893), P- '72- There is some confusion in tlie words '\^'(/r ■«£■/>, forks, 
or columns" in this passage. Ga-.'ael means a grasp or hold ; the Welsh for 
fork is gavl. 

- " Report," p. 692 : " (lir. Desc. Canil).," i., c. 10 and c. 17. 

^ See "Ancient Laws," vol. i., p. 11, note. 



V 
\ 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 201 

" There are fourteen persons who sit on chairs in the 
palace ; four of them in the lower portion and ten in the 
upper portion. The first is the king ; he is to sit next the 
screen ; next to him the canghellor ; then the osb ; then 
the edling ; then the chief falconer ; the foot-holder on the 
side opposite the king's dish ; and the mediciner at the base 
of the pillar opposite to him on the other side of the fire. 
Next to the other screen, the priest of the household, to, 
bless the food and chaunt the Pater; the silentiary is to\ 
strike the pillar above his head ; next to him the judge of 
the Court ; next to him the chaired bard ; the smith of the 
Court on the end of the bench below the priest. The chief 
of the household is to sit at the lower end of the hall with 
his left hand to the front door, and those he may choose 
of the household with him ; and the rest on the other side 
of the door. The bard of the household is to sit on one 
hand of the chief of the household ; the chief groom next 
to the king, separated by the screen ; and the chief hunts- 
man next to the priest of the household, separated by 
the screen." ^ 

These were the rules for Gwyned ; in the Demetian 
Code, as we have it, there is no such elaborate statement, 
though there is a chapter on appropriate places applying 
to the ceremony at the three principal festivals, Christmas, 
Easter, and Whitsuntide.- 

In regard to this order of precedence we notice first of 
all the absence of all reference to the queen or other ladies, 
and we feel inclined to infer from this fact that it has 
reference, not to the ordinary life of the chieftain and 
his establishment, but to the formal occasion of some 
ceremonial Court, probably the solemn meetings of the 
household on the three principal festivals, of which 
we have mention, or other similar assemblies. It will 

' Ven. Code, i., c. 6 ; "Ancient Laws,"' i., p. ii. 
" Dem. Code, i., c. 6 ; "Ancient Laws," i., p. 351. 



202 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

in the second place not escape observation that, besides 
the officers named in the list we have given above, 
there are places assigned to the " canghellor," the "osb," 
and the " edling." The canghellor was not a minister 
of the Court (in the sense of the household), but a 
territorial officer of the cymwd, though we may assume 
that he attended the king's Court when in the due course 
of the ro}'al progress it was held in his particular district. 
The word " osb " or " hosb " is derived from the Latin hospes, 
guest, and though used in the singular is to be looked on 
as a generic word to cover all guests of high degree present 
on any formal occasion on which the full ceremonial was 
observed. The " edling," to use the word employed in 
Aneurin Owen's translation, is in the Welsh text, " Gwrth- 
drych'' (the words ^' id est edligg'' are added), and signifies 
the heir-apparent — " he who is to reign after the king," and 
who " ought to be son or nephew to the king." 

In the status of the edling, as described in the Venedotian 
Code, we seem to perceive a new order of ideas. Originally 
the kingship or chieftainship appears to have been the 
"prerogative of a famih' rather than of a person, and the tie 
of blood relationship bound together the head chieftains 
and the sub-chieftains and the chiefs of kindred and heads 
of households, and whilst the continuit)- of kindred .so 
secured throughout the whole hierarch)- of chieftains bound 
the whole bod)' of tribesmen together b)' the tie of blood, 
the gulf remained as great as ever between the tribesmen 
and the strangers in blood." ^ The regal rights were vested 
in a cenedl (kindred) of royal privilege." This family, as 
exhibited in the Codes, consists of the king and his near 
relations, and the near relations are defined as his sons, 
nephews, and first cousins. The Code says : — 

' Seebohm, " Tribal System," p. 148. 

- The Welsh word is In-aint. Perliaps status is the most correct juridical 
term to express what is meant. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 203 

" When the edling dies he is to leave his horses and his 
dogs to the king, for that is the only ebedizv^ he is to 
render ; and the reason \\\\y he ought to render no other 
is because he is a near relation of the king. The king's 
near relations are his sons, his nephews, and his first 
cousins. Some say that every one of these is an edling ; 
others say that no one is an edling except that person to 
whom the king shall give hope of succession and desig- 
nation. . . . The edling and those whom we have above 
mentioned shall possess that privilege until they obtain 
land ; after that their privilege shall be identified with the 
privilege of the land they obtain, except they obtain land 
in villeinage ; in that case the privilege of the land shall 
augment until it become free." - 

The near relations of the king thus formed an exclusive 
royal class, and on the death of a king it was from this 
class that the new king legally came. Seemingly, the king 
had the right to nominate his successor. The similarity of 
the position of the Welsh " Gwrthdrych " with that of the 
Irish " Tanaiste " ^ should not escape attention. 

^ A render in the nature of a heriot or relief. 

2 " Ancient Laws," i., pp. 9, ii. 

^ With the Cymric family of royal privilege, compare the rig domna [i.e., 
"the makings" or "materials of a king") or royal class among the Irish. 
See O'Sullivan's Introduction to " O'Curry's Lectures," pp. ccxxx — ccxxxi. 
Our information as to the proper devolution of the kingship or chieftaincy is 
scanty. It seems, however, clear that the royal privileges did not descend 
according to the rule of primogeniture, and that the lands appurtenant to the 
kingship were not divided on death like tir gwelyawg. The new chieftain was 
either the g-wrthdrych nominated by the deceased king from among his 
"near relations," or else was elected by the members of the royal cenedl. 
Theoretically, the bundle of rights forming the kingship belonged to the 
cenedl collectively. The members of the cenedl were entitled to maintenance 
at court ; but the king could grant to any of them the rule over one or more 
cymwds, or settle them on tir givelyawg, to the possession of which he might be 
entitled. Such were the rules as we infer them from the Codes, and from 
what we know as to the actual course of succession in the more peaceable 
times ; but we cannot advance these propositions with certainty. Some 
light is perhaps thrown on the matter by the Irish system as described in 
" Le cas de gavelkind," where it is said : — " Before the establishment of the 



204 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

Any one of the " near relations," until he settled upon land 
in some cymwd, was maintained at Court. When he settled 
on land from which a free tribesman's dues issued, he lost 
his royal status and became a /^reyr or uchelwr. But 
there are indications in the laws that he might be placed 
at the head of a court iftys) of a cantref or cymwd, and 
exercise (subject to the king) regal rights.^ If, instead of 
settling on that kind of land which was called tir givelyaivg 
{i.e., famih' land), he was established on bond land, he lost 
his status, but in that case his land became free, and he 
was onl}^ liable to pa}' the givcstva and other dues of an 
uchelivr. 

The C}'mric king, like other monarchs of medictval times, 
made progresses through his dominions, which imposed 
obligations on his subjects. There seems to have been a 
distinction between the progress for hunting or hawking, 
or military purposes and the great progress of the house- 
hold after Christmas. The king's gosgor^ (retinue) con- 
sisted of thirty-six horsemen - the twenty-four chief officers 
and twelve guestey (i.e., probably the persons who brought 
the entertainment dues, gu'estz'a, from each free niacnol in 
the c\'mwd) — together with the rest of the household, the 
V\x\<g'^ givyyda (literally, "good men"), his inferior servants, 
his ministers, and his almsmen. - 

Passing on from the men of royal or princel}' degree we 
come to the rest of the Cymry proper, the uchelwy?- and 
bonettigioH. They, of course, formed the majorit)' of the 
race. Their status cannot be fully understood till the rules 
relating to the possession of land and the way in which it 

(English) common law all the possessions within the Irish territories ran either 
in course of Tanistry or in course of gavelkind. Every Signory or Chiefry, 
with the portion of land which passed with it, went without partition to the 
Tanist, who always came in by election or with the strong hand, and not by 
descent ; but all inferior tenanties were partil)le between males in gavelkind" 
("Davis's Reports," Hil. 3 Jnc. i). 

' See Seebohm, "Tribal System," p. 147. 

- " Ancient Laws,' i., p. 9. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 205 

was distributed in each cytnwd have been explained. The 
uchelwyr and bone'digion were all free tribesmen ; they 
were true Cymry ; they were, like their royal superiors, 
grouped into cenedloect. They occupied tydytiau (home- 
steads) on the tir givelyawg (free or family land) of the 
cymwd ; and by the time of Howel Da some of the 
uchelwyr had on their land eiiition or taeogion cultivating the 
soil on terms analogous to those on which the bond tenants 
of the bond or register land of the cymwd stood towards 
the arglwytt. They were liable to military service for six 
weeks in the year outside the country, and at any time 
within it. They were competent to take an oath for legal 
purposes and to be members of the rJiaith gwlad (yi\.&c^y, 
" right of the country "),^ which meant that they were fully 
entitled to the privileges of the common law of the Cymry. 
In dealing with the law of property (if we may use the 
term), we shall make the position of the free tribesman 
more clear. 

The acquisition by the son of a Cymro of full privileges 
ia the cenedl was marked by two stages. First, the infant 
son was solemnly received into the kindred by his father, 
or if the father was not alive by the penkenedl with six 
kinsmen, or if there were no penkenedl, by twenty-one of 
the best men of the cenedl.- From the time of his reception 
into the kindred the son was maintained by his father, who 
was " responsible for him in everything," until the child 
attained the age of fourteen years. Then his father took 
him originally (as it seems) to the penkenedl, but in the 
Codes, as we have them, to the arglwyd, and commended 

^ RJiaith is a term that is used in more than one sense. Originally it seems 
to have been used to signify the notion conveyed by the juridical terms, jtis, 
droil, recJit. It is cognate with German recJit and English right, and is repre- 
sented in Irish by the neuter recht, which is as if we had in Latin, besides 
rectus, -a,-iim, a neuter rectu, genitive rectus. 

- The ceremony is described in the Venedotian Code, " Ancient Laws," 
i., p. 207. 



2o6 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

the youth to him, and the youth became the man of, and 
"was placed on the privilege" of the penkenedl or arglwyd; 
and thenceforth the young Cymro was to be supported by 
the chief or lord, and became himself liable to answer claims 
made upon him, and capable of possessing da (cattle and 
movable property). The status so acquired was that of an 
innate bonedig ; and even if his father was an uchelwr he 
did not obtain that degree till the father died.^ The right 
of maintenance by the chief or lord to whom the young 
Cymro was commended .seems to have involved the giving 
of cattle to the latter, and a share of the free land of the 
kindred ;- but on the other hand he became liable to 
military service.'' 

The transfer of the son to the care of the lord of the 
cymwd did not, however, confer on the former the right to 
receive his cyvarwys at once, but the lord undertook the 
obligation of providing for him till his settlement and of 
doing what we should now call completing his education. 
This he performed by quartering the lad on one of his 
ciHtion. 

The gweision by chain (little youths) or gwestioti by chain 
(little guests), as they were called, were no doubt trouble- 
some visitors in a farmer's house, and as they approached 

1 See Veil. Code, "Ancient Laws," i., pp. 203-5; also //'/(/., i., p. 91. 
The text adds "and no one is a wa;i/^('_^'- (iiorsenian or knight) till he shall 
ascend," i.e., to the status of his father. 

- The rights of the kinsman against the chief, as representing the kindred, 
were collectively called cyvarwys. .A. late triad says, "Three lyi'ar'ioysau of an 
innate Cymro ; five free erws ; co-tillage of the waste ; and hunting." See 
" Anc. Laws." ii., p. 516. Cyfaruys or cyfarws is used in the Mabinogion 
to signify a boon or the right to ask for a gift of one's own choice. Whether 
that is the original meaning may be doubted. Its employment in the laws 
suggests that its primary signification was a right to quarters or lodging. If 
that is so it may be analysed into cyf-ar-wys, from the root ucs ("to abide," 
also "to be," in Eng. was, were), from which we have ar-os (to "remain" or 
"wait"). From it. too, comes ^'tcwj ("a residence") in Welsh mediaeval 
poetry. 

^ And, of couise, entitled to bear arms. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 207 

manhood formed those companies of youths whom Giraldus 
mentions as moving about the country. According to the 
same author, the princes entrusted the education of their 
children to the care of the principal men of their country, 
each of whom, after the death of the father, endeavoured by 
every possible means to exalt his own charge above his 
neighbours, and he points out that on that account friend- 
ships were found to be more sincere between foster-brothers 
than between those who were connected by the natural ties 
of brotherhood.^ It looks as if the rules as to youths and 
the usages we have referred to had some connection with 
the widely-diffused custom of fosterage,- of the existence of 
which in Wales definite proofs are to be found in the 
Welsh laws. In the Venedotian Code it is laid down that if 
an uchelwr place his son to be reared with an aittt of a lord 
by the permission or sufferance of the lord for a year and 
a day, that son is to receive a son's share of the aiUfs land, 
and ultimately of his property." 

Here we must notice that, besides the rights possessed by 
the innate boneig to his cyvarwys (rights acquired by him 
as one of the kin, and claimed by kin and descent), he had a 
right of succession to a share oi\h&tirgwelyawg{i^XM\.y land) 
possessed by his father, grandfather, or great-grandfather, 
and the possibility of attaining a position of privilege as a 
landed person and chief of his family within the cenedL 

1 " DcoC. Cambr. " ii., cc. 4, 9. 

- See Maine, " Early History of Institutions," p. 241 ; and the tract on the 
Law of Fosterage in the " Senchus Mor." 

^ "Aug. Laws," i., p. 195. Cf. Deni. and Gwent. Codes, pp. 543 and 767. 
In this connection, see the text as to the rearing of a bone^ig when he was 
nursed liyhis mother and brought up at home (" Anc. Laws," i. 519). There 
can be httle doubt that the character of the marriage contract and the division 
of the children on separation of husband and wife afford some explanation of 
the custom of fosterage. But, as Mr. Seebohm points out, it was " one of the 
several means used under the tribal system for the purpose of tying strangers 
as closely as possible to the tribe, quite consistently with the tribal policy of 
keeping the class of strangers in blood as loosely organised as possible /w/tv^tf." 
" Tribal System," p. 128. 



2o8 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

{i.e., becoming an uchelwr or bnyr). His possible accession 
to that position depended on tile rules relating to tir 
gwelyawg, with which we deal below, and his right was 
claimed by a process called dadenhiiit {i.e., the uncovering 
of the family hearth).^ The hearth was the symbol of 
family ownership, and " the covering and uncovering of the 
fire had a picturesque significance. Whether the fire were 
of wood or turf, the hearth was swept out every night. The 
next thing was to single out one particular glowing emblem 
— the seed of fire — \\'hich was carefully restored to the 
hearth and covered up with the remaining ashes for the 
night. This was the nighth- covering of the fire. The 
morning process was to uncover the seed of fire, to sweep 
out the ashes under which it was hid, and then deftly to 
place back the live ember on the hearth, piling over it 
the fuel for the new day's fire. This was the uncovering of 
the fire, which thus, from year end to }'earend, might never 
go out." ~ 

So much as to the sons of the free tribesmen. In regard 
to a daughter, the law was that she was to be maintained 
by her father till she attained twelve years of age, and 
thenceforward she was not to remain " at her father's 
platter " unless he should will it. There is some ambiguity 
as to her position if her father refused to maintain her ; but 
the text .says that from her twelfth year she is to pos.sess 
her own da (chattels, movable property), which may simply 
mean that she is capable of owning movable property, or 
(as is more probable) implies that she had a right to a share 
in the da of the household or of the larger group of kindred, 
to the fourth degree, of which she was a member.'' 

It is said that a daughter is to have of her father's da 

1 A miin could not claim by dadeninid except by the hearth he himself, or 
his father before him, uncovers. " Anc. Laws, ' ii., p. 141. 

- Seebohm, "Tribal System," p. 82. 

•■' See t!ie Vei^. Code, book ii., c. 30, on the " Law of a daughter and her 
rights." "Anc. Laws, ' i., p. 205. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 209 

only half the share her brother is to have.^ Whether this 
was on the father's death or on attaining the age of twelve 
years is not clear. One of the noticeable things about the 
status of woman in these laws is the freedom accorded to her 
both before and after marriage. " Every woman is to go the 
way she willeth freely, for she is not to be home-returning."- 
Upon the marriage of a Cymraes, or upon her having 
connection with a man, a fine, called ai)iobr, was payable to 
the lord of the cymwd.^ The amount of the fine varied 
according to the status of her father. If her father or other 
relative gave her away in marriage, he was liable to pay 
the amobr ; if the woman disposed of herself, she was bound 
to pay the fine.'^ The head of the household in which a 
woman slept was also liable to the lord, presumably in case 
of default on the part of the person primarily responsible.^ 

The young daughter, in the first instance, does not seem 
to have been entirely at the disposal of her father, nor to 
have been, in theory, entirely free. The laws refer to the 
giving of a daughter in marriage by her kindred as well as 
by her father.^ She seems also to have been entitled to a 
marriage portion or settlement {givaTtol) from her father 
or kindred, which consisted, perhaps, of the half of a 
brother's share of da, or, perhaps, of chattels agreed between 
her father or kindred and the bridegroom. 

The gwadol usually included not only things of utility 
for a new household, but also argyv?'eu (special ornaments, 
paraphernalia). It is not perfectly clear whether a sister's 
share of da was necessarily handed over on marriage, or 

' " Anc. Laws," i , p. 99. 

- "Anc. Laws," i., p. 97, 

^ Atnohr hecTime due in three modes : one, by gift and delivery before the 
woman be slept with ; secondly, by openly cohabitating, though there might be 
no gift or delivery ; thirdly, by her pregnancy. Ven. Code, ii., c. i., "Anc. 
Laws,'' p. 95. 

■* "Anc. Laws," i., p. 88. 

^ "Anc. Laws," z'/'/fl'. 

^ See above, as to the functions of the group of kindred to the fourth degree. 
W.P. V 



210 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

receivable on the death of the father, but on the whole the 
texts seem to indicate that it was usual for the family of the 
bride to give some kind of portion. 

Daughters did not take any share in the land of the 
gu>elj'. But if a woman were given in marriage to an 
alltud, her sons could claim in due course to share by 
privilege of maternity.^ 

The position of women in the system can, however, only 
be made intelligible by reference to the law as to the 
marriage contract and its consequences, which shows a 
serious conflict between the law of the Church and the law 
of Howel. 

Thus we read in the Venedotian code that : " The 
ecclesiastical law says again that no son is to have the 
patrimony but the eldest born to the father b)- the married 
wife ; the law of Howel, however, adjudges it to the 
youngest son as well as the eldest ; and decides that sin of 
the father or his illegal act is not to be brought against 
the son as to his patrimon}'." - By the " married wife " in 
this passage we are probably to understand a woman 
married according to the rites of the Church, and therefore 
not within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity ; and b)- 
the " illegal act " is meant a marriage invalid according to 
the doctrines of the Church. The general tenure of the 
Welsh laws and the provisions of the Statute of Rhudlan'^ 
show that to a late period the old Cymric customs pre- 
vailed. The laws did not permit polygam}' ; a man at 
one time could have only one " espoused " wife.^ But the 
contract was not necessarily of life-long duration, and each 
party had a right of repudiation or separation exercisable 
without any liability, except a loss of da (goods and chattels), 

' " Anc. Laws,"' i., pp. 97 ami 175. 

- " Anc. Laws," i. 179. 

•* See below, p. 353. 

■• "No man is to have two wives" ("Anc. Laws, " i., p. 97). 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 211 

varying with the time and circumstances of the parting. 
The marriage ceremony is not expressly described, but, as 
we infer it from texts scattered throughout the codes, it 
was a verbal contract between the kindred or father of the 
bride and the bride herself of the one part, and the bride- 
groom of the other, entered into in the presence of witnesses.^ 
We are not told whether it took place in the house of the 
bridegroom's or that of the bride's kindred, but in its 
essence it was a formal delivery of the woman, together 
with her gwadol and agwe'di, by her kindred or father to 
the bridegroom. At the time of the delivery mutual 
warranties or suretyships were exchanged. On behalf' of 
the bride her kindred or parent gave sureties that she would 
do nothing culpable against her wedded husband, and the 
bridegroom gave sureties for his wife's gwadoL and agwe^i.- 
There is some obscurity as to the term " agwe^i." Aneurin 
Owen translates it " dower," but it is clear that the Welsh 
wife was not entitled to dower in the English sense till the 
Statutes of Rhudlan came into force ; and agwetti^ strictly, 
was a payment made by the kindred or parent of the bride 
to the bridegroom,*^ but the word sometimes seems to be 
used to include the marriage portion of the bride as well. 
One other incident of the marriage must be mentioned, 

' See an incidental reference to the contract, " Anc. Laws," i., p. 5'9- 
- "Anc. Laws," i., p. 529 The Ven. code gives a chapter to suretyship 
(mechiiiaet/i), but it is very obscure. It seems to have been a contract entered 
into verbally, in formal terms, before witnesses or arbitrators (rtw/«(?i;'7i'_j'r) whom 
the parties empowered to enforce the contract in tiie form they had agreed. 
Ven. Code, book ii., cc. 6, 7; "Anc. Laws," i., p. 112. 

■* "There are three legal agiueti: the agtvedi of a King's daughter, 
24 pounds ; . . . the agweiii of a gwrda's daughter, 3 pounds ; . . . the 
aguiedi of an ailit's daughter, i pound " (Ven. Code, ii , c. i. 32; "Anc. 
Laws," i. 91). In modern dictionaries both gwadol and agzaecti ave translated 
into "dower.'' Gzoadol = gwo-dawl (Irish fo-ciail ; Latin divisio) is a portion 
or dowry as a division of something. Agwedi seems to mean all that the 
dy-wedi (the betrothed woman) brings with her to the husband ; but in the 
laws it is limited, as in the text just quoted, to a pecuniary sum given to tlie 
bridegroom by the bride's parent or kindred. 

P 2 



212 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

the cowytt of the bride ; this was a gift payable the morning 
after the consummation of the marriage by the husband 
to the wife, the amount of which depended on the status 
of the wife's father.^ 

Each of the three codes contains a chapter deahng with 
the law relating to women. They are very similar in 
substance, though they vary in detail. That in the 
Venedotian code is the fullest and, on the whole, the more 
archaic. It describes some usages of a barbaric character 
which one is somewhat surprised to find surviving to so 
late a period in a country in which the Church had been 
established for many centuries and was a powerful force. 
The laws deal ver}- minutely with the relations of husband 
and wife itite}' se, and it is impossible for us to follow them 
into particulars. 

We can only attempt to seize the salient points, but 
we are by no means sure that we have construed the 
texts aright. It is however clear that the marriage tie 
was loose, and that the wife had far greater freedom than 
was afforded to her by the law of the Church or the English 
common law. Practically either husband or wife might 
separate whenever one or both chose. There seems to have 
been no legal method of bringing the parties again together ; 
but the time and circumstances of the separation entailed 

^ The cowyit of a king's daughtei' was 8 pounds ; ot a gwrda's daughter 
I pound ; and of an aiflt's daughter six-score pence (" Anc. Laws, i., p. 91). 
Probably at an early period the cowyH was not thus accurately measured, for 
one of the texts says, " If a maid be given in marriage to a man and her caivyH 
be not specified before she rise from her bed in the morning, he is not answer- 
able to her for it thenceforward. If a maid declare not her cowyif before she 
rise from her bed in the morning, the cmvyit is to be thenceforward in common 
between them" ("Anc. Laws," i. 91). There seems some inconsistency 
between these two sentences, and it is not easy to see what they mean if the 
co'uyti was already fixed by law. Cotvyfi is probably of the same origm as the 
Welsh word ca^veU, "a basket or creel," and to lie compared with the French 
term, corbeilk de fnariage, which Littre explains as meaning " parure et bijoux 
que le futur envoie a sa fiancee dans une corlveille d'ornement." — Littre, Diet., 
s.v. (orbeille. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 213 

different consequences in regard to the division of the 
household goods. Separation of husband and wife might 
take place by agreement or by the act of one party without 
lawful cause. In regard to separation by agreement, the 
period of seven years less three days was crucial. If the 
separation was voluntary on both sides, and took place 
before the wife had attained " three nights of the seventh 
year," the wife was only entitled to take away from the 
house her agwe^i (seemingly including her gwaziol, her 
argyvreu (paraphernalia), and her cowytt). If they cohabited 
till after there were three nights wanting of the seventh 
current year, and afterwards separated by agreement,^ 
everything belonging to them was divided into two portions. 
The laws set out minutely the things that were to go to the 
wife and to the husband respectively, and as to the things 
which the law did not specifically allot, the wife had the right 
to divide them, and the husband chose which portion he 
would take.^ Of the children two shares went to the father 
and one to the mother — the eldest and the youngest to the 
former, and the middlemost to the mother. The debts were 
payable in equal shares ; and the household goods that were 
to go to the wife and husband respectively are enumerated 
with particularity. If a wife left her husband before the 
seventh year without good cause, she lost all her property 
except her cowyU and her right to any fine due from the 
husband for having committed adultery.'^ The good causes 
for which she might repudiate her husband without any 
loss of property were — his being affected with leprosy, his 
having fetid breath, or his impotence.^ 

^ It is not clear whether this division was made when the separation after 
seven years of cohabitation took place by the will of one party without mis- 
conduct on the part of either the husband or wife. We are inclined to think 
not, yet the other view is arguable, at least so far as the Ven. code is concerned. 

^ " Anc. Laws," i., p. 8i. 

3 "Anc. Laws," i., p. 85. 

■• Aneurin Owen's modesty induced him to translate some of the usages 
described in the laws relating to women into the comparative obscurity of the 



214 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

On the other hand, if a wife were " guilty of an odious 
deed along with another man, whether by kiss, aut coitu 
aut palpandol' the husband could repudiate her, and she 
forfeited all her property rights.^ Man}' other rules as to 
the relations of the sexes are given which we cannot stop to 
explain. The separation of husband and wife under these 
rules does not seem at once to have operated as a complete 
divorce, and it seems that it was only on the subsequent 
marriage to another person of one of the parties that the 
relationship was finally determined.- 

We pass on now from the rules as to the status of the 
Cymry proper to those dealing with men of the sub- 
ordinate classes (called eitttion, taeogion, and atitudioti), who 
though not endowed with tribal privileges were allowed 
certain rights and a recognised place on Cymric land. 
They could not possess tir gwelymvg (family land), but 
were settled (at least originally) only on tir cyfrif {regisi^r 
land — the bond or servile v/aenolvito^ the cymwd), of which 
we say more below. Their evidence was of no worth 
against a Cymro,"^ and to them were denied the ripht to 
bear arms, and the privileges of horsemanship and hunting.* 
An aitlt could not without his lord's consent become a 
clerk, a smith, or a bard, but if the lord did not object 

Latin tongue. We follow his exani)i]e. The method of deciding whether the 
husband was or was not imjjotent is thus given : — " Si femina olj desideriumse 
sejungendi diceret quod vir non potest copulare, lex requirit id probari hoc 
modo : linteanien album recens lotum sub illis expandi, et virum in illud ire 
pro re venerea et urgente liliidine earn super linteamen projicere ; et si fiat vel 
conspiciatur in linteamen satis e.sl ei et ilia postea iion potest ob istam causarn 
se sejungere ab eo ; et si non possit potest se sejungere ab eo, et abire cum 
omnibus rel^us suis.'" 

1 "Anc. Laws," i., p. 527. 

- So we infer : " If the husband tai<e another wife after he shall have parted 
from the first, the first is free. If a man part from his wife and she be minded 
to take another husband, and the first husband should rejient having parted 
from his wife, and overtake her with one foot in the bed and the other outside 
the bed, the prior husband is to have the woman "' (" Anc. Laws,'' i., p. 87). 

•' "Anc. Laws," ii., pp. 515, 557. 

*• " Anc. Laws,'' ii. 515. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 215 

before he vvas tonsured as a clergyman, or set up a smithy 
of his own, or graduated in song as a bard, the lord could 
not enslave him again.^ 

There is in the laws (though the rules we have just set 
forth apply to both classes) some confusion between the 
eitttion or taeogion on the one and the atttudion on the 
other hand. The explanation of the difficulties caused by 
the indiscriminate use of the words " ailtt " and " atttud " in 
the manuscripts that have come down to us is easy if the 
views, as to conquest of Wales by Cuneda and his Sons, 
and its settlement or division by Dyfnwal Moelmud, stated 
in, the preceding chapter, are accepted. If that account be 
true in substance (as we think), the conquerors made 
arrangements that continued to exist for centuries ; and 
the laws we are considering seem to prove that they had 
forcibly grouped the vanquished peoples of the land in the 
areas that became the bond-maenols of the cymwds as 
marked out by Dyfnwal, and put them into the category 
of the eitttion or taeogion. But so soon as the Cymry 
had established themselves, their rulers and the officers 
of the cymwds must have had to consider the legal posi- 
tion of strangers coming to reside on the then sparsely 
populated Cymric territory from England or Ireland, or of 
men of different grades, for one reason or another, leaving 
districts in which they were born and seeking a new place 
of settlement — especially those of Cymric blood who, 
because of their misdeeds, had become the " kin-wrecked " 
men with whom the Welsh texts make us acquainted. No 
atttud came within the purview of Cymric law till he placed 
himself in some way under the protection of a Cymro ; 
before he had any rights recognised by that law he must 
have entered into relationship with a man of Cymric blood. 
The tie did not necessarily imply serfdom. An English- 
man might commend himself to a Welsh king and become 

1 " Anc. Laws," i. 436. 



2i6 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

his man ; the matter might go no further ; he simply 
entered into the king's nawd (peace or protection). But if 
such an alltud desired to settle permanently in Cymru, he 
could not obtain tir gwelyawg ; he could only be allowed 
to occupy land in the niaer-dref oi the king's demesne or be 
placed in a taeog-tref^ in some cymvvd belonging to his 
protector. 

If he did so and lived on his land he did not lose 
his freedom to go away when he might will, but if his 
descendants remained there till the fourth generation, then 
those of that generation became eitttion and adscripti 
glebcE. Till the fourth generation his descendants might 
leave their land and its lord on penalty of forfeiting half 
their personal property {da)} But in some cases, at any 
rate, or in some parts of Wales, this settlement was not 
without compensation, for the recognition of kindredship 
then began, though it was not till the ninth generation 
that an aiHt gcnedl was legally formed. The effect of 
this was not (except perhaps in South Wales) to make the 
members of such a kindred Cymry, but it altered their 
status and enabled them to claim galanas for the slaying 
of a kinsman. - 

Another general distinction between the status of 
individuals was founded upon religious profession. The 
community was divided by these laws into lay and spiritual 
or ecclesiastical persons. The clergy formed a kind of 
separate estate. It is clear that in Howel's time the Church 
possessed a large amount of landed property with various 
immunities, which seem to have depended principally on 
the terms of the original donation. All possessors of 
Church land were to come to every new king who succeeded, 

^ " Anc. Laws," i. 183. 

- As to the position of strangers in the system -a very ol)scure and donbtful 
topic — see Seebolim's "Tribal System," pp. 115 — 126. Till the period at 
which airlt kindredship was allowed, the worth of a slain man of the (amily 
went to the lord, as in the case of an hereditary taeog ("Anc. Laws," ii. 403). 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 217 

to declare to him their privilege and their obligation ; and 
after they had declared to him their privilege, if the king 
saw their privilege to be right, he allowed them to continue 
their nazvct (right of sanctuary or protection) and their 
privileges or immunities.^ The land of the Church seems 
to have been divided into abbey land, bishop land, hospital 
land, and land of a church. 

As a general rule the king seems to have had jurisdiction 
in regard to some offences committed by and the right to 
certaid dues and services from laymen settled on such land.- 
It is said, however, that Howel permitted every ecclesiastical 
lord, such as the archbishop of Menevia (St. David's), or other 
bishops or abbots, royal privilege for holding pleas among 
their laics according to the common law {cyfraitJi gyffredin) 
of Cymru.'^ The clergy were, it appears, exempt from the 
jurisdiction of civil courts, though they might sue laymen 
in them. On the other hand, in general, the spiritual court 
could not deal with suits against laymen ; but in regard to 
tithe, daei'ed (income or fees), etc., and to saraad {injuria) 
and open violence done to a clerk, the Church had juris- 
diction over laymen.^ There was no worth established by 
Howel for the limb or the blood or the saraad of a clerk, 
and every "unworthy" injury done to the clergy was to be 
repaired to them in the synod according to ecclesiastical 
law.' Abbots, bishops, and masters of hospitals were per- 
mitted to make capitular regulations according to their own 
law for their establishments, provided the rules did not 
contravene the law of the king.^ 

Other distinctions between persons were based upon 

1 " Anc. Laws," i. 139. 
- "Anc. Laws," i., p. 171. 

^ "Anc. Laws," ii., p. 365. But this seems a late theory ; see below, p. 240. 
"• So we interpret the texts in a chapter entitled " Suits of Court and Church " 
(" Anc. Laws," ii., p. 367), but the MS. is somewhat late. 
" "Anc. Laws," i. 477. 
® "Anc. Laws," i. 171. 



2i8 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

official position or the status (braint) of office. The rights 
and duties of the ministers of the king's and queen's 
estabHshments, to whom we have referred above, and of the 
maer and canghelior of the cymwd, are set forth with great 
minuteness. 

"VVe now turn to consider briefly the law relating to 
property in or possession of land. Here again in the 
codes we find the cymwd treated as a legal unit, and 
its divisions give us a key to the explanation of the 
system. The divisions are ascribed to the laws of Dyfnwal 
Moelmud ; and though at first sight they look, as explained 
in the codes, to be rigid territorial areas, yet on further 
consideration it seems they were created in order to adjust 
the rights of the king or chieftain, the uchelwyr, the tribes- 
men, and the eitttion, of separating the inferior classes from 
the Cymric tribesmen, and especially for the purpo.se of 
aggregating the homesteads of the free Cymric tribesmen 
into groups for the assessment oi Xhe. gwestva (food-rent) due 
to the chieftain. There was some difference in the arrange- 
ments in Gwyned and Deheubarth. According to the 
Venedotian code the cymwd was thus divided : — Four 
erwau ^ in every tydyn (homestead), four tfdynati in every 
rJiandir (shareland), four rJiaiidiroed in every gafael (hold- 
ing), four gafaelion in every tirf (vill or township), four 
trefylt in every niaenol~ and t^\'elve macnolyd and two 

' it'/TC (literally, "what has been tilled") was a measurement applicable 
to arable land. It contained about 4,320 yards. A. Owen's "Glossary." 

- Sometimes spelt niaeiioi-. Maciiol, according to Dr. Pughe's guess, a 
"dale" or "manor," is best explained as " heredium " or "praedium.'' 
Macnol (adj. ) means ■ ' stony. " Maounvr (for that is the old spelling) becomes 
maeiiol in Gwyned and viacuor in Powys and South Wales, and being 
feminine it becomes with the article y Faciiol and y Faenor, " the maenawr " ; 
whence in place-names it is written Vaetiol or Vaynol in the North, and 
Vaeiior or Vaynor elsewhere. Without the article it is written Manor, 
as in Manordeifi ( = Macnor Deifi), and Manorbeer ( — Maeuor Byr) — botli 
in Pembrokeshire. The latter was so called after a certain Porius or Pyr 
after whom Caldey was named Ynys ]]yr (Pyr's island). The word inaciia-ivr 
has nothing to do with English manor, to which it is often assimilated, but 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 219 

trefyd in every cyuiwd. So, there being fifty trefyd in each 
cymwd, and two cymwds being normally equal to a cantref, 
there were one hundred trefyd in the cantref; and there 
were twelve maenolyd and two trefyrf in a cymwd, which 
were thus apportioned: — the two "supernumerary" trefyd 
were possessed by the king— one as niaer - dref land 
{i.e., demesne land), and the other as his waste and 
summer pasture ; four of the maenolyd were assigned 
to eilltion to support dogs and horses and for progress 
and dovi'aeth (quarters) ; of the remaining eight maenolyd, 
two were assigned to the canghettorship and maership 
of the cymwd, and the rest to the free uchelwyr. Such 
is the arrangement ascribed by the code of Gwyned to 
D)^fnvval, and though there seems no reason to doubt that 
it represents a system that once had real significance, there 
are some obvious difficulties arising from the language of 
the code. The erw is defined as a definite and constant 
area, and if the text is to be taken literally, all the cymwds 
would be of equal size, but this was certainly not the case ; 
and so, whatever may have been the intention of the ancient 
legislators, we must look on the larger areas mentioned as 
not being uniform in size, but as representing groups of 
households connected together for the purpose of adjusting 
the rights of the king as against the men of different classes 
residing in the cymwd. Whatever the original object of 
these divisions, the aspect presented by the cymwd in 
Howel's time, if we may judge by the codes, was this — it 
was divided into recognised maenolyd" ; a portion of the 
cymwd was possessed by the king, or an arglwyd appointed 
by him, as demesne land, and another part was recognised 
as the king's waste ; the maer and the canghettor occupied 

appears to come from iiiaen (a stone). Originally it probably meant a par- 
ticular spot in its district, which was distinguished by stone buildings or some 
sort of stone walls ; this seems to us more likely than the conjecture of A. Owen 
that it meant a district bounded by stone land-marks. See Professor Lloyd's 
remarks in " YCymmrodor," xi., 32-3, and Mr. E. Phillimore's note x., PsS7. 



220 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

other areas within it ; the residue of the land was divided 
into til' gwelyawg (occupied by uchelwyr and bonedigion) 
and tir n//'//^ (occupied by eilltion) ; and an acute distinction 
is drawn between the free land of the true Cymry and the 
bond land of the unfree persons, and it should be noticed 
that the legal attributes free and bond are given not only 
to persons, but also to specific areas of land. 

The king's demesne {jiiaer-dref) was cultivated by his 
eifttion under the superintendence of his land-maer, but it 
also seems that parts of it were occupied by subordinate 
officers of the court holding their land free by privilege of 
office in return for their services.^ 

We have already had occasion to advert to the relation 
of ihe. gwely to the cenedL in dealing with the constitution 
of the latter as it existed in Howel's days ; we have now to 
consider its relation to the king as lord of the cymwd. 

So far as we have observed, the codes nowhere speak of the 
uchelwyr as holding their land of the king, but their position 
was in Howel's time, or when the codes were in operation, 
hardly distinguishable from that of tenants. The first 
obligation of the possessors of tir gwelyawg was to pay a 
gwestva (food-rent) to the king. Originally this was paid 
in kind for the entertainment of the king and his court on 
his progress.- He did not quarter himself on the Cymric 
tribesmen, but, as we shall see, the eitttion had to provide 
him with certain necessary buildings, while the former had 
to furnish the food and drink. According to the codes, 

' See a survival of this in the case of the manor of Aberffraw. .Seebohm's 
"Tribal System," p. I2. 

- From tile phrase " naw nos gwesty" (.i.e., nine nights of the guest-house) 
it would appear that the original obligation of the cymwd was to entertain its 
chieftain for nine niglits. Naw-nos means eight days bounded by nine nights, 
just as ivytlinos (eight nights =a week) is our ordinary Jewish week of' 
seven days. Cf. huitaine, and pytheiviios (fortnight, quinzaiiie). Natv-iios is 
the old Celtic nine-night week of eight days. See Rhys' "Celtic Heathendom," 
pp. 360, 365. See " Anc. Laws," ii. , p. 345; and Seebohm's "Tribal 
System," p. 15S. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 221 

/ 
this service was no longer rendered in kind, but had been ^ 

commuted into a money payment — the tunc pound. The 
Venedotian code says : " And from eight (i.e., the two 
maenolyd of the maer and canghellor and the six of the 
Cymric tribesmen) the king is to have a gwestva every 
year ; that is, a pound yearly from each of them : three- 
score pence are charged on each trev of the four that are in 
a maenol, and so subdivided into quarters in succession, 
until each erw of the tydyn be assessed : and that is called 
the tunc pound ; and the silentiary is to collect it 
annually." ^ The maenol therefore appears as the tune- 
paying unit, and the gwestva or tunc pound was a rent 
issuing from the whole tir gwelyawg of the cymwd, and not 
a personal due from the uchelwyr or heads of households ; 
and the required amount was assessed among the uchelwyr 
and heads of household according to the number of the 
subdivisions of the maenol in their possession. 

The uchelwyr and other Cymric tribesmen were also, 
as we have said, liable to military service. ~ Though they 
were not subject (except so far as the tunc pound in lieu 
of the gwestva was concerned) to liability in regard to the 
king's progresses, they had also to submit to the great 
progress of the household once a year.-^ Lastly, the free 
tribesmen, like other classes in the community, were obliged 
to pay on death an ebediw (a relief) to the king or lord. 

The mode of succession on the death of an tichelw?- or 
chief of a household was as follows : — The land of the 
deceased was first of all divided between all his sons. If 
there were no buildings on the land, the youngest son was 
to divide all the patrimony, and the eldest was to choose 
which portion he would take, and each in seniority chose 
unto the youngest. If there were buildings on the land, the 

1 "Anc. Laws," i., p. 189. 

^ ^' Anc. Laws," i., p. 79. See above, p. 205. 

^ See above, p. 204. 



222 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vr.) 

youngest brother but one was to divide the tyddynazi 
(homesteads), and the youngest was to have his choice 
among them ; and after that he was to divide all the 
patrimon)', and by seniority they were to choose unto the 
youngest. That division was not final, but only continued 
during the lives of the brothers. After the brothers were 
dead their sons (first cousins) divided the patrimony again 
per capita, and not per stirpes ; the heir {etifed) of the 
youngest brother divided, and the heir of the eldest brother 
chose, and so by seniorit)' unto the youngest. This 
division again was not final, but only continued till all the 
first cousins were dead ; when that time arrived there was 
a final division per capita among the second cousins — i.e.^ 
the great-grandchildren of the original head of the gwely} 

Thus eveiy one of the male descendants to the fourth 
degree of a possessor of tir gwelyazvg had an interest in 
the family land, which became an interest in possession to 
a share in his father's land when his father died, and which 
was liable to be enlarged or lessened when the next division 
of the whole land of the gively took place. 

It was a logical result of this position of things that 
a chief of a household could not alienate or dispose of an)' 
part of his tir givelyawg except for his own life ; if he did 
so, it was recoverable by his sons. Where, however, there 
was an agreement between father, brothers, cousins, and 
second cousins (seemingly the whole gwely') and the lord 
to yield land as bloodland {i.e., in lieu of the composition 
for homicide), the head of the household might assign his 
land or part of it, and his son could not recover, and the 
reason given is that peace was bought for the son as well 
as for the father — i.e., there was valuable consideration to 
the son.'- This case is mentioned as the only one in which 

' " Aiic. Laws," i., p. i68. This is from tlie Ven. code, Init the Demetian 
cofle is in jiiactical agreement. 
'-■ " Anc. Laws," i. , p. 177. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 223 

a father could defeat his sons' rights. It seems, however, 
that a man who had no sons could, with the consent of his 
brothers, first cousins, second cousins, and the lord of the 
cymwd, alienate his land.^ 

We have now explained the principal rules relating to //r 
gwelyawg as they appear in the codes. They seem to us, 
in the form there presented, to indicate that the tir gwely- 
awg in each cymwd consisted of definite geographical 
parcels, though the uchelwyr and bonedigion occupying 
them had rights over waste and woodland, and our opinion 
is confirmed by the existence of rules concerning boundary 
disputes." 

We now pass on to consider the law as to the servile or 
villein maenolyd. According to the original scheme, four 
maenolydwere set aside foroccupation by eilltion or taeogion. 
As a result of the application of the old regulations, we find 
that in Howel's time certain parts of each cymwd were in 
the possession of occupiers or tenants not looked upon as 
Cymric tribesmen, but as unfree persons {adscripti glebes), 
whose services to the king or lord and whose rights 
were different from those of the owners or holders of //r 
gwelyawg. 

1 This is an inference. Tlie Ven. code speaks of the grades just mentioned 
as the "persons without whose consent land cannot be assigned" ("Anc. 
Laws," i., p. 177), and another text says that " no nian can sell land or engage 
it without the permission of the lord " (i., p, i8i). He might let it annually 
without such permission. 

- " Anc. Laws," i., p. 537 : " If a dispute as to boundaries be commenced 
between the land of co-inheritors, privilege is to meer ; if between occupied 
land and a waste, pre-occupation {cynwarchad) is to meer." The text goes on 
to say that " building and tillage denote occupation." The meaning is obscure ; 
but it seems to amount to this — that in the first case that one of the contending 
parties whose hraint (status or privilege) was higher had the right to define the 
boundary ; that in the second case the prior occupant had that right. Another 
text says : "If there be contention between two persons of equal braint as to 
meers, and the truth between them be not known, let each swear to his meer, 
and afterwards the debateable land is to be divided between them" ("Anc. 
Laws," i. 537). 



224 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

The bond maenolyd (the parcels of land to which a non- 
tribal character was given) were liable to furnish a dawn- 
bw}-d (food-gift) twice a year to the king — one in the winter 
and one in the summer.^ Apart from the food-gifts, the 
eitttion were not bound to support the king or his household ; 
but they had to submit to the progresses of the maer and 
canghettor. These, with their servants, were to make two 
progresses aye^r, in parties of four. The villeins were also 
obliged to erect the hall and eight subsidiary buildings for 
the king on his progresses, though whether this was done 
afresh every year, or when built only repaired from time to 
time, is not clear.'- The king was also entitled to have for 
his military expeditions from every villein-tref a man, a 
horse, and an axe, to form encampments at his own cost.^ 
They had also to furnish pack-horses for the king for 
such expeditions.^ Once a }'ear the)' were to present the 
queen with meat and drink ; and upon them fell the 
duty of supporting the dogs, the huntsmen, the falconers, 
and the youths, all of them once a year. The king might 
also quarter strangers on his eitttion according to their 
abilities.^ 

The regulation of matters in the bond maenolyd or as to 
tir cyfri^ was entrusted to the maer and canghettor of the 

' " Anc. Laws," i., p. 199. According to the Veiiedotian code they were 
the following : — 

(i) In the winter — a three-year-old swine ; a vessel of butter 3 handbreadths 
in depth and 3 in breadth ; a vat full of bragot 9 handbreadths in depth 
diagonally ; a ihrave of oats of one band for provender ; 26 loaves of the best 
bread grown on the land ; a man to kindle the fire in the hall that night or 
one penny. 

(ii) In summer — a three-year-old wether ; a dish of butter ; 26 loaves ; a 
cheese of one milking of all the cows in the tref 

The gifts in the other cases are similar in general character, though not 
identical. 

2 " Anc. Laws,"' i. 79, 487. 

2 "Anc. LaW'S," i., p. 79. 

■* " Anc. Laws," . 193. 

^ INd. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 225 

cymwd.^ Upon the death of an aiHt possessing a ty(tyn 
the land which had been in his occupation was not divided 
between his sons as in the case of h'r gwelyawg ; but the 
tref in which the tydyn of the deceased was situate was 
re-divided between all the eitttion settled in the tref? The 
land-maer of the king's maer-dref is directed to proceed in 
the same way as to the king's eitttion settled thereon. The 
incident of ebediw (relief) applied to the eitttion as to the 
Cymric tribesmen, but the amount was less;^ 

We can only give very brief attention to the law of 
contracts. The laws recognise the sale, loan, deposit, and 
pledging of da (movable property). But besides obliga- 
tions resulting from such transactions as these, duties might 
be created by entering into a suretyship {jnecJin'iaetJi), a 
bridiiw, and a legal contract {amviod dedfol). Suretyships 
and legal contracts were verbal agreements entered into 
in solemn form before witnesses or contract-men {ammod- 
wj/r). The mutual undertakings were spoken by the con- 
tracting parties, and in sign of the conclusion of the contract 
there was " a mutual pledging of hands," which we gather 
was a joining of hands. ^ A promise given without witnesses 
present was of no avail if denied on oath by the alleged 
contractor.' The bridiizv seems to have been a contract 

^ The general name of the land on which taeogion or eiHtion were settled, is 
in the codes //;- i;jy)7/(reckon-]and, i.e., land accoiinled for). The tatog-irrj or 
maer-dref o{ the codes is equivalent to the tref^aiery (subdivided irej) of the 
Record of Carnarvon. H. Lewis's "Ancient Laws," p. 41; Seebohm's 
" Tribal System," p. 116. 

2 " Anc. Laws," i. 169. Seemingly for reasons of convenience no one was 
to remove from his legal iycty/i if an equivalent could be obtained for it of 
other land. 

■* It was for a king's aitlt 6 score pence ; for an uchelwr's aiHt 4 score and 
10 pence ("Anc. Laws," i., p. 493). That of a breyr (= uchelwr) was 
6 score pence. 

■* See " Anc. Laws," i., pp. 137-8 : ako the chapter on Suretyship, ibid., 
p. 113. " There is no surety nor gorvcdawg unless the three hands meet," 
idi'd., p. 135; and also p. 133. See the texts as to " delusive suretyships." 

5 /Idd. 

W.P. Q 



226 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

entered into with the sanction of the Church, a promise on 
oath taking God to witness that a man would do or abstain 
from doing some act. It could only be entered into by 
baptised persons.^ 

The same fundamental notions as to the punishment of 
wrongs that prevailed among the Irish and Saxon nations 
in early times are disclosed in the Welsh laws. The 
rules as to offences of different kinds are most completely 
developed in the third book of the Venedotian Code, which 
is called the Proof book {Lyfr praivf). The preamble 
shows that it was compiled after Howel's time;- and as 
the text refers to alterations made by Bledyn ab Cynfyn, 
it must have been originally written not earlier than the 
middle of the eleventh century, and in fact probably a good 
deal later. It treats of the "three columns of law" i^teyr 
koloi'yn kyvreytJi) — the law of murder or homicide {galanas), 
of theft {ttadrad), and of fire {tari) ; and then with very great 
minuteness goes on to .settle the worth of wild and tame 
animals, of the different limbs and members of the human 
body, of domestic utensils, agricultural implements, and 
many articles coming under the head of movable property. 

The treatise shows clearly that as in regard to property 
arrangements, so also in regard to wrongs, the effect of 
settlement in a particular district for centuries had been to 
alter very materiall}' the older tribal system, and to vest 
in the lord and court of the c\'mwd a territorial jurisdiction 
in regard to what we should call crimes. The distinction 
between civil injuries (offences against an individual or 
individuals) and crimes (offences against the state or com- 
munity at large) is not developed, though for many wrongful 

* " Anc. Laws," i., pp. 133-5. It was probably entered into in church or 
in the presence of a priest. 

* " And this book lorwerth son of Madog collected from the book of 
Cyfnerth son of Morgeneu, and from the book of Gwair son of Ruvon, and 
from the book of Goronwy son of Moreictig, and the old book of the White 
House, li'C." ("Anc. Laws,'' i., p. 219). 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 227 

acts the lord has the right to exact fines called dirwy and 
cavilwrw, and for some the wrong-doer might be sold, or 
exiled, or put to death. Apart from homicide, what we find is 
an elaborate system whereby the injured person might sue for 
money compensation fixed by law beforehand in respect 
of each kind of offence, though in some cases the offender 
was also directly punished. The texts of the codes are very 
obscure, and we do not affect to be able to interpret them 
with certainty or summarise them with absolute correctness. 
The rules relating to galanas (homicide) are set forth 
with tolerable clearness, and are of great importance to 
students of the history of legal institutions, for they are 
evidently derived from notions common to all or nearly all 
races at certain stages of their development, and the working 
of the system is explained at unusual length. In very 
early communities the moral ideas of their members were 
limited to men of their own tribe or clan or family. The 
words stranger and enemy were practically synonymous. 
The slaying of a man outside one's community might or 
might not be counted for righteousness, but it was not 
thought of as wrong. But the killing of a man within the 
pale — belonging to one's own tribe — was quite another 
thing, and the nearer relations of the murdered man were 
prompted to vengeance, not only by natural emotions of 
anger and pride, but by powerful impulses connected with 
primitive religion. It was the right and duty of the 
kindred of the murdered man to prosecute a blood-feud 
against the murderer and his kindred. P\X. some time 
amongst progressive races, to put a stop to strife within 
the tribe, a system of ending the feud between kindreds 
or families within the larger aggregate of kinsmen was 
devised. In all probability expediency suggested the settle- 
ment of the quarrel without further bloodshed between 
the kindreds by a payment of cattle. The termination of 
the vendetta was very likely originally brought about by a 

Q 2 



228 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

voluntary treaty between the kindreds at feud ; but in the 
codes we find a rigid system, carried out according to a 
settled procedure, under which one group of kinsmen made 
to another group of kinsmen a payment in cattle or money, 
which varied with the status of the murdered man, and 
which was carried out under the auspices of the lord of 
the cymwd. " There was thus, so to speak, a kind of 
international law and authority superseding the lynch- 
law or blood-feud between the kindreds." ^ The Irish 
laws describe an analogous .system as " a middle course 
between forgiveness and retaliation," and the essential 
character of the whole proceeding is emphasi.sed by the 
text of the Venedotian Code, which says that " on that day" 
— the day on which the worth of the murdered man is 
completely paid — " everlasting concord is to be established 
and perpetual amnesty between them {i.e., the kindreds 
at feud)." 2 

Let us now try as briefly as possible to explain the 
system as it appears in the Venedotian Code. To do so 
we must first of all define two technical {.^rms, galanas and 
saraad. The former word is now used for homicide or 
murder ; in the codes it is employed not only in that sen.se, 
but also for the worth measured in cattle or money of the 
murdered man. Saraad (literally " disgrace") was in like 
manner a term u.sed to signify a wrongful act involving 
insult to the person whose right was infringed, as well as 
the compensation pa}-able for the wrong. It was a very 
general term, and included both direct trespasses to the 
person and indirect attacks upon a man's honour, privi- 
leges, or rights.'' Saraad., therefore, was much broader than 
galanas, and no one could commit galaiias without doing 

' Seebohm, "Tribal System," p. 105. 

■-' " Anc. Laws,"i., p. 229. 

■* E.g., saraad was done to a queen by snatcliing anything out of her hand, 
or violating her protection or peace {iiaivd). So saraad was done to a king 
by seducing his wife or violating his protection ("Anc. Laws," i., p. 7). 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 229 

saraad to the deceased.^ Accordingly the law quite 
logically imposed on the murderer and his kinsmen com- 
pensation for saraad as well as galanas. 

The amount of the galanas was generally thrice that of 
the saraad of the deceased,- and the amount was fixed by 
law for each kind of man, so that we have incidentally 
valuable information as to the grades of aristocracy and 
status. 

The galanas of the king of Aberffraw was his saraad 
threefold. His saraad was — " a hundred cows from eafch 
cantref in his dominion, and a white bull with red ears to 
each hundred cows, and a rod of gold equal in length to 
himself and as thick as his little finger, and a plate of gold 
as broad as his face and as thick as the nail of a ploughman 
who has been a ploughman for seven years." ^ Gold was 
only paid to the king of Aberffraw. As to other men the 
following were the amounts o^ galanas : — 

The penkenedl ....... 189 cows. 

An uchelwr . . . . . . . . 126 ,, 

Man with a family without office (penteulu) . 84 ,, 

Innate bonedig . . . . . . . 63 ,, 

Atttud of a brenin . . . . . . 63 ,, 

Alitud of an uchelwr . . . . . . 31^ ,, 

Caeth "slave" of the island : i lb. of silver . 4 ,, 

Caeth from beyond the sea : I5 lb. . . . 6 ,, 

The galanas of a woman was half that of a man.'* 
The murderer or wrong-doer was not alone liable for the 
payment of galanas and saraad, but jointly with him a 
group of his kinsmen. The group liable for saraad was 
limited to the fourth degree from the common ancestor — 
i.e., the group of descendants among which tir gwelyawg 

^ " No one is killed without being first subjected to saraad " (" Anc. Laws," 
i. 231). 

- "Anc. Laws," i. 223. 

^ "Anc. Laws," i., p. 7. But as to the latter statement, see the Demetian 
Code ("Anc. Laws,"i. 347). 

■• " Anc. Laws," i., p. 85. 



230 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

was divisible and re-divisible. The responsibility for 
galanas lay upon a much larger group : the kinsmen to 
the seventh degree of descent from the common ancestor 
— i.e., all the kinsmen of the murderer to that degree of 
relationship which, for want of a better term, we must call 
sixth cousinship.^ 

The galanas was assessed on such kinsmen not only 
on his father's side, but also on his mother's side. The 
mode of assessment was as follows : — One-third of the 
whole amount fell upon the murderer and his father and 
mother, if living, in the proportion of two parts on himself 
and one part on his father and mother. If he had children, 
and they were of age liable to pay, the murderer himself 
paid two-thirds of his own share, and the children the 
remaining third of that share. The residue (two-thirds) of 
the whole gala?ias fell upon the groups of kinsmen on the 
father and mother's side just described in the proportion 
of two-thirds for the father's kin and one-third for the 
mother's kin. 

But the liability of his kin was not wholly exhausted 
within this grade, for if by assessment in the manner 
described the full galanas was not collected, the murderer 
could call upon the remaining men of his kindred {cenedt) — 
i.e., his kinsmen to the ninth degree — to assist him by a 
payment called the spear-penn)' {ceiniog baladyr). Bej'ond 
the ninth degree liabilit}' ceased, and the Welsh lawyer 
asks, " Is there a single penny for which a person's life is 

' The following was the group thus Rjimeil : — 

1. r.rothers ....... haul 

2. First cousins . . . . . . keiienderii 

3. Second cousins ...... keucrderu 

4. Third cousins . . . . . . keyiiyn 

5. Fourth cousins ...... gorcheytien 

6. Fifth cousins . . . . . . gorchaii 

7. Sons of a fifth cousin .... 7>iab gorchan 
There is, however, some obscurity, if not confusion, in the mode of counting 

degrees of relationship in the codes. See " Anc. Laws," i. 225. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 



2^1 



forfeited ? " and sternly answers, " There is ; a penny wanting 
(ox galanas.'" ^ Neither women nor clerks were liable for 
the spear-penny, for "they were not avengers."^ 

The manner in which the spear-penny was collected is 
curious. The murderer, accompanied by a servant of the 
arglvvyd of the cymwd, carrying with him a relic, went 
forth, and wherever he met a man not known to be related 
to him within the seventh degree, was entitled to require 
such person to take an oath on the relic that he was not 
descended from any of the four kindreds from which 
the murderer was descended. If he took the oath, he was 
exempt ; if he did not, he was assessed.^ 

Turning now from the consideration of the individuals 
or groups liable to pay saraad and o-a/anas, we find that the 
gala7ias obtained from the murderer and his kin was thus 
divided : the first third was taken by the lord for exacting 
it ; the second third was distributed between the father 
and mother of the murdered man, their children, and his 
children, if any ; ^ the third went to the groups of kins- 
men of the murdered man on the father's and mother's 
side who would, in case he had been the murderer, have 
been liable to pay the corresponding shares oi galanas — the 
third being divided between these groups in the proportion 

^ " Anc. Laws," i., p. 600. The method of communicating the law by 
question and answer is not infrequent in these Welsh treatises. It is interesting 
to notice that the ninth degree is still looked on as a limit among the Welsh. 
If a witness in Court is asked {e.g.), "Are you a relative of the defendant's? " 
it is not unusual for him to reply, " Diin perthynas o fewn y nazvfed ach" 
which means " not related within the ninth degree.'' Mr. S. T. Evans, M.P., 
heard the phrase quite recently in Carmarthenshire. Another phrase in use 
is, " I am not related ' hyd y naivfedach,' " i.e., as far as the ninth degree. 

" "Anc. Laws," i., p. 227. 

^ " Anc. Laws," i., p. 225. 

■* The division of the second third within this group took place thus : " two 
shares to the father and one to the mother . . . and of what remains for the 
children, if there be children of the murdered mnn, two shares to them." Two 
versions of the division oi galatias sre given in MSS. of the Ven. Code. We 
follow the older MS., which was taken by A. Owen as the principal text. 



232 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

of two parts for the father's kin and one for the mother's 
kin.^ As to the division of the sat'aad of a murdered man 
there is some conflict of authority, but the usual way seems 
to have been to give one-third to his widow if he was 
married, and to divide the remainder among the group of 
kinsmen Hable in the converse case to pay sai-aad ;'^ but if 
his father were alive the father received in the distribution 
a share equal to twice that of a brother ; and similarly if the 
mother were alive she received a share equal to twice that 
of a sister.'^ If the ga/aiias was not duly paid, the injured 
kindred were at liberty to exercise the right of vengeance 
seemingly without becoming in turn liable {or gala?ias:^ 

It is evident that these arrangements applied to the case 
of the murderer and his victim being members of different 
kindreds. If a man murdered his near kinsman — a man 
of the same cenedl — no galafias was due, but the murderer 
appears to have forfeited his rights as a member of it ; he 
became a kin-wrecked {carttawedrog) man, and though not 
put to death, he was an object of hatred,'' and obliged to 
flee and find shelter and protection among strangers. 

It should be noticed that there is in the codes no defini- 
tion of murder {ga/a)ias). It seems that the term was not 
limited to cases of intentional homicide. The gist of the 
wrong seems to have been the causing the death of a man, 
but the matter is not clear. One te.xt says that there was 
no liability if the alleged murderer could prove that he 
acted in self-defence. 

The procedure for determining liability is not fully 

' " Anc. Laws," i., p. 227. 

- " Anc. Laws," i., p. 231. 

:' Ibid. 

■* But in the time when the codes as we have them were in operation it 
seems that the riglit of revenge was limited to the slaying of the murderer. 
" No one," says one version of the Ven. Code, " is to be killed on account of 
anotlier but the murderer" ("Anc. Liws," i., p. 229). 

'" " Since the living kin is not killed for the sake of the dead kin, eve'-y body 
will hate to see him " (" Awe. Laws," i. 791). 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 233 

explained, and raises questions of a character too detailed 
for us to enter upon here. It was evidently, however, a 
trial by compurgation. The oaths of three hundred men of 
a kindred were required to deny " murder, blood, and wound, 
and the killing of a person." ^ When the liability iox galanas 
was admitted, or the kindred charged failed to absolve 
themselves, the amount was collected by the lord thus : — 
" The period for galanas is a fortnight after being sum- 
moned for each lordship in which they {i.e.^ the kinsmen 
liable) live to apportion the payment, and twice that time 
for exacting the payment and assembling them to pay it. 
At three periods and in three thirds the galanas is to be 
paid : two periods for the kindred of the father, and one 
period for the kindred of the mother ; ... at the first 
period for the kindred of the father to pay one of their 
thirds, they are to have the oaths of one hundred of the 
best men of the other kindred that their relation is forgiven ; 
and at the second period, on their paying their second 
third, they are to have the oaths of another hundred men 
of the other kindred that their relation is forgiven, and 
those of the best men of the tribe ; and at the third period 
the kindred of the mother are to pay their third ; and then 
they are to have the oaths of a hundred men of the other 
kindred that their relation is forgiven ; and everlasting 
concord is to be established on that day and perpetual 
amnesty between them." - 

The codes do not make the rules relating to trespass to 
the person not causing death, but dismemberment or other 
bodily injury, a " column of law " ; but assaults and batteries 
came under the head saraad ; and the offender and his 
kindred of the circumscribed degree had not only, when 

^ A distinction was drawn between an ordinary murder and a murder "with 
savage violence." No explanation is given of the latter term, but to deny the 
charge the oaths of six hundred men of the kindred were necessary ("Anc. 
Laws," i., p. 231). 

- "Anc. Laws," i., p. 229. 



234 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

the wrong was admitted or proved, to pay the amount 
prescribed as the sanxad of the complainant, but also in 
case of maiming or definite injury to a part of the body 
the worth as fixed by law of the limb or part destroyed 
or affected. 

The second " column of law " {Itadrad, literally theft) is 
treated of in a chapter in the Venedotian Code. Its con- 
tents are not simply rules for the punishment of theft in 
our sense, but rather a collection of rules relating to 
property in movable things and interference with a man's 
right of possession. The texts indicate difference of opinion 
on some points, and give an account of the law not easily 
intelligible. Da (chattels) were divided into things animate 
and inanimate. The claim or title {ai'deliv) to an animal 
was of three kinds — birth and rearing, possession before 
loss, and the warranty {arzuaestn') of another person ; to 
inanimate things, of two kinds — possession before loss, and 
warranty. Several kinds of wrongful taking of another 
man's da are given. The consequences of taking a thing 
in a man's presence were diflerent from a taking in his 
absence — i.e., secretly or without his knowledge. 

Theft itiadrad) is defined as the taking of a thing in the 
owner's absence, coupled with denial of the act. Surreption 
{anghyfarcJi) was the taking of the thing secretly, but with- 
out any subsequent denial of the act. Violence {trais) was 
the taking of a thing in a man's presence and against his 
will. Savage violence {fyrnygruyd dywuynaii) was com- 
mitted when a man rendered useless the property of another. 
Mistake or inadvertence {an^iodeii) was the taking of " one 
thing for another " — that is, the taking of a thing that one 
had no right to possess under the belief that one was acting 
legally. These distinctions were apparently of importance 
in regard to the procedure for recovering da which one man 
claimed from another. 

If a man was in possession of property and another 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 235 

claimed it, the procedure before the court was this: — The 
possessor asked, "Who owns this?" then the claimant said 
he did, and that " It is wrong for thee to own what is 
mine"; then the defendant said, "It is altogether denied; 
for nothing of thine have I : and since I have not, by what 
means did thy loss happen, and at what time didst thou 
lose it?" Then if the claimant alleged a loss by theft, by 
negligence, or by surreption,^ he was entitled to swear to 
the thing being his property in the prescribed manner — 
which varied according as the chattel was animate or 
inanimate — and was obliged to state with particularity the 
time of its loss. Upon his taking the proper oath on the 
relic, what we should call the burden of proof was shifted to 
the then possessor, who was not, however, put to a rhaith 
(compurgation) in this proceeding,"^ but only on proof in 
a prescribed form of his title {ardelw). The title or claim 
he might take his stand on was either warranty {arivaesav) ^ 
or possession before the time sworn to by the claimant as 
the time of loss, and also, in the case of animals, birth and 
rearing. In case the defendant relied on a warranty he 
had to call for a warrantor, and if no one was produced he 
lost his cause ; if the warrantor came forward the claimant 

1 There were six ways in which a man might lose his possession : theft, 
surreption, or neghgence, deposit and loan, hire, or by favour (= gift). In the 
three former cases he could swear in legal form to the property ; in the latter 
he could not, and seemingly his suit failed. The reason given is that in the 
three latter cases he had voluntarily given up the thing, and, as we understand 
the law, it was for the bailee to sue, not the original possessor or owner. 
SeJ qu. ? (" Anc. Laws," i. 249.) As we understand the matter, the action 
dealt with under the second column of law was one against a defendant alleged 
to be illegally possessing the plaintiff's da. It was not founded on contract, 
but on a wrong. An action as between a bailor and bailee was regarded 
as based on the real contract. 

2 "It is not right that there should be a rhaith after detention and swearing 
only, arwaesav, or custody before loss, or birth and rearing " (" Anc. Laws,'' 
i., p. 249). 

^ In this connection it ought to be observed that there was a special kind 
of warranty, which might be given on sale, called dilysrwy'3' (literally, 
affirmation), and which was a warranty of title. 



236 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

recommenced the proceedings. If the defendant reh'ed on 
prior possession he took an oath, in the way the claimant 
had done, that the thing was his, and then having said that 
the thing had been in his possession " either a week or a 
month or two or a season " before the time of loss deposed 
to by the claimant, he produced "guardians" {geitweyt^ 
— seemingly witnesses) to lawfully prove his possession as 
alleged, and on doing so obtained judgment. If he alleged 
that he had bred and reared the animal in dispute he was 
to produce " guardians " who would depose to the mother 
of the animal having been his property, and that the latter 
was born in his possession and had not been parted with 
till that day. The production of two " guardians " sufficed 
if one was of status higher, and one of status lower, than 
that of the defendant." 

This proceeding for recovering possession is not to be 
confounded with what is described as a legal prosecution 
{gyrr kyiicvt/iyaitl) for theft ; the claimant in the former action, 
though he might allege he had a right to take the oath and 
put the defendant to his arctelw, did not swear the latter 
was a thief A legal prosecution for theft could onl}' be 
commenced by the claimant's taking an oath that a person 
accused by him had " really stolen the goods." '^ Upon this 
the accused was put to his rhaitJi (compurgation). At the 
time when the Venedotian Code as we have it was in 
operation it was customary to require for theft the oaths of 
twelve men, and " the half of them nodmen {gu.<yy nod)!' ^ 
If the accused failed to secure the required rhaith he was 
convicted. 

^ The word is not now used. It is translated "guardians" l)y A. Owen 
(" Anc. Laws," !., p. 251). 

- " One above his hand and another l^elow his iiand " ("Anc. Laws," i., 
p. 251). 

■' "Anc. Laws," i. 243. 

■* " Anc. Laws," i. 243. The term gun- >!od (literally, man of mark) is very 
ambiiruous. Sometimes it looks as if it meant a taeoir or aiHt. Hut here 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 237 

There was a distinction drawn between theft of a thing 
worth fourpence or less, and a thing worth more than that 
amount. In the former case the convicted thief became 
a " saleable thief " {fteidr gwertJi) ; in the latter the thief 
forfeited his life, but not his property.^ The worth of a 
saleable thief was fixed at seven pounds, and it would seem 
that if the seven pounds were paid by the thief or on his 
behalf he was let off. If he or his friends did not redeem 
him he was exiled, and if he remained in the country 
beyond the time assigned (a day being allowed for him for 
passing through every cantref in the lord's dominions) was. 
liable to lose his life unless some one bought him — that 
is, he became an outlaw.^ 

The third column of law was tan (fire), and the rules 
concerning it are curious. We can only glance at them. 
The important position given to this topic was due to the 
fact that the houses were timber-built, and probably also to 
the difficulty of kindling fire. Ta7i is dealt with as if it were 
an object of property rights. If a man gave fire to another 
to burn therewith, and he admitted the gift, the donor was 
to pay one third of any damage caused by its user.^ To 
take fire from a house without leave was an offence against 
the owner for which payment was to be made to him, and 

^wyniod would seem rather to mean men of distinction, of higher status. Cf. 
"Nody genedl" (= mark of the kindred), used for a sign on a boundary 
stone, and di-nod {ohszxxx^), " Anc. Laws," i. 242. See A. Owen's gkissary 
("Anc. Laws," ii., p. 11 18). 

1 " Anc. Laws," i. 253. The property stolen was, however, restored to the 
owner. There is some diversity of view as to these rules. 

2 " Anc. Laws," i., p. 245. It is said that a bondman [taeog) is not to be 
put to death if his lord will redeem him (ibid., i. 255). We ought to say that tlie 
codes show considerable difference of practice as to the law of theft. The 
Church in some cases seems to have claimed to play a part ; see Dem. Code, 
" Anc. Laws," i. 419. In trying to get at the first principles we have mainly 
followed the Ven. Code. 

3 "Anc. Laws," i., p. 259. But another text says, "Whoever shall ask to 
bo7-row fire: let it ccme to him without claim against the lender." The 
distinction seems fine. 



238 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

was also punishable by a fine {canihvrw) to the lord. If a 
man set fire to a house he was liable to pay its worth, and 
that of any other houses burnt in consequence.^ If in con- 
sequence of the carelessness of the owner of a house in 
a tref it caught fire, he was liable at any rate for damage 
done to the two nearest houses, but if the fire spread further 
it was deemed an uncontrollable fire for which no one had 
redress.- There were three fires for which no indemnity 
could be claimed, even if they did harm : burning the heath 
in March ; the fire of a smithy in a hamlet which was seven 
fathoms from the nearest houses, and which was covered 
with shingles or tiles or sods ; and the fire of a bath in a 
hamlet seven fathoms from the other houses. 

The elaborate distinctions made among those who were 
accessory to the offences dealt with in the three columns 
of the law deserve the attention of the student of legal 
history, but we cannot do more than call attention to them. 

There is no reason to doubt that the essential principles 
of the criminal system of which we have been treating had 
their origin in a state of society much earlier than that of 
the Cymry in the time of Howel ; but as the whole law is 
presented to us, it is clear that long strides had been made 
towards the development of a true criminal law, and the 
recognition of a distinction between injuries to individuals, 
and grave offences against the community or the king or 
lord as its visible representative. This is most clearly shown 
by the liability to pay for various offences fines (called 
dirivy and cauihurw) directly to the lord of the cymwd, by 
the distinction between offences which amounted to a breach 
of the king's nawU (protection or peace) and that of other 
men, and to some extent by the punishment of treason 

• " Anc. Laws," i. 259. This explains the necessity for the rules as to the 
worth of buildings and their different parts. See /(^/V/., p. 293. Different values 
are set on the houses of a king, of an uchelwr, and of an aittt. 

- "Anc. Laws," i. 259. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 239 

{brad) to a king (not merely as a wrong against a pen- 
kenedl), and the forfeiture by a traitor of patrimonial 
rights, which was roughly equivalent to the attainder of 
English law.^ 

We do not propose to deal at length with the adminis- 
tration of justice among the Welsh under these laws. 
The usual distinction between lay and spiritual courts is 
certainly to be found, but if we may safely judge from the 
codes we should say that the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical 
courts was not developed to so great an extent as in 
England at the same time. The highest lay court was 
the court of the king or prince. The king or the judge of 
the court {ynad itys) presided, but there were apparently 
other assistant judges. This court decided all disputes 
between officers of the household.- Certain other matters 
were reserved to it ; for instance, if an ecclesiastic held 
land by title under service to be performed to the king, he 
was to appear in case of dispute in this high court. The 
same tribunal had a kind of appellate jurisdiction. If a 
suitor who had lost a cause in a court of local jurisdiction 
complained that the judgment was wrong, he entered into 
a "mutual pledge" with the judge against the decision. 
If he wished to appeal, he was obliged to demand the 
pledge before the judge left his seat or passed on to the 
next cause. The appeal came on in due course in the 
king's court. It seems the judgment could only be 
questioned on the ground that the judge had applied a 
wrong law, that the proceedings had not been conducted 
with the right formalities, that the judge was partial or 
interested in the result, or that he had exacted fees 

^ It should, however, be mentioned that thougrs. the fines {dirwy and 
camhurui) were inflicted in Gvvyned, the evidence as to treason comes from the 
Dem. Code. But dirwy for offences committed within the king's palace was 
doubled even according to the Ven. Code (" Anc. Laws," i. 13. See also 
ibid. 436, 550). 

- See " Anc. Laws," i., pp. 27-28, pp. 369-371, p. 469. 



240 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

illegally.^ If the decision went against the judge, he lost 
his office, his status as one of the order of judges, and his 
tongue or its worth as settled by law.- If the appellant 
failed, he had to pay the judge's saraad, and to redeem his 
tongue by paying its value. 

Besides the king'scourt (which moved about with the house- 
hold) there were local courts — those of the cantref and those 
of the cymwd. The distinction between the two sets of fixed 
territorial courts is quite obscure. Perhaps the cantref court 
adjudicated in cases where the disputants resided in different 
cymwds. The officers of the court of a cymwd were the 
canghettor, the maer, a judge or judges, a priest who acted as 
registrar, a clerk, and a bailiff or usher. The composition 
of the court, so far as the judges were concerned, varied in 
different parts of the country. In Gwyned and Powys, it 
is said, there was one judge appointed for each court of a 
cymwd or cantref; but in the south every landed person 
(owner of tir gwelyawg) was a judge, and the right or duty 
of sitting in the court was an incident attached to the land.'^ 

In a treatise entitled "additional law" of a date subse- 
quent to the subjugation of the principality by Edward I., 
it is said that Howel " permitted every ecclesiastical lord 
such as the archbishop of Menevia or other bishops and 
abbots, royal prixileges for holding pleas among the laics 
by the common law of Cymru. And likewise, he permitted 
every chief {peujiaet/i),^ to whom there might belong a 
cymwd or cantref or more, to hold a daily court of privileged 
officers, in number as he should think proper, in a similar 

^ " Anc. Laws," i. pp. 475, 479- 

- "Anc. Laws," i. 116. The tongue's wortli was that of all the other 
members of the human body. It was assessed at four score and eight pounds 
(//'/(/., pp. 311, 505, 699). Lawyers and judges seem to have had some 
kind of organisation, and toha\e formed, like the bards, an order with various 
privileges. 

■' " Anc. Laws," i., p. 469. 

' Seei!:ingly the ai-ghvyTt o{ whom we hear in other contexts. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 241 

manner to himself; and privilege to hold a royal court of 
pleas {dadleuoed breninawl) in his country among his 
uchehvyr."^ Jurisdiction conferred by the king in this way 
finds no countenance in the codes. The courts of the 
cymwd appear in them as part of a regular system of no 
recent origin ; but as the authority of the court of the 
cymwd covered in practice all the ordinary suits in its area, 
as by legal theory every cymwd had over it some brenin, 
tywysog, or arglwyd, and as the process was to a late period 
oral, it can have mattered little whether the presiding 
officer affected to proceed in the name and by the privilege 
of the king himself or of some lord appointed by him. 

Though the granting of practically complete immunity 
to the Church from the authority of lay chieftains was very 
likely common enough in the earlier years of Cymric 
history,^ the conferring on laymen of privileges analogous 
to those of the lords-marchers of a later time is not 
probable, and is inconsistent with some of the regulations 
in the codes ; so we think that the statement which we 
have just quoted is simply a reproduction of a theory later 
than, the time of Howel (perhaps of the fourteenth century), 
which attempted to account for a state of things then 
existing by referring it to the positive enactment of 
Howel. 

On the subject of judicial procedure we must content 
ourselves with mentioning just a few salient points. As 
might be expected, the codes are very full of the subject,^ 

' This is in c. 13 of book x. of the "Anomalous Laws," entitled, the 
" Charter of Howel fJa." The chief text is printed from the MS. which is 
denominated Q by A. Owen (Preface, " Anc. Laws," i., p. 30), and in his 
opinion was written about 1401. 

- See Seebohm's "Tribal System," c. 8; and "Book of Llan Dav" 
(Oxf. ed.), pp. 118 ei seq., 364-5. 

^ See, e.g., the lengthy chapter on the laws concerning landed property and 
how one pleads {datleivyr) in respect thereto, in the Ven. Code, "Anc. Laws," 
i. 141 et seq. We take datlewyr from the Code. It should be spelt dadUitir 
in Mod. Welsh. 

W.P. R 



242 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

and any attempt to briefly summarise difficult and con- 
fusing texts would lead to error. Notwithstanding some 
striking analogies with the early judicial procedure of the 
English, we see no reason to doubt that in the main the 
rules disclosed in these codes were not imitations, but 
were naturally developed among the Cymry themselves. 
The court sat in the open air, the pleadings were oral 
(though there are references to a record — cofUys), and the 
progress of civil actions (at any rate) was evidently slow 
and tedious. The year was divided for legal purposes, 
so far as actions about land were concerned, into four 
periods ; in two the law was " open for landed property," 
and in two it was " closed." This resulted in there being 
two terms in which claims to land might be made, prose- 
cuted, and tried. The first was from the ninth of the 
calends of winter to the ninth of February ; the second 
was from the ninth of May to the ninth of August.^ 
There was a class of professional lawyers The parties 
had the assistance of a cyngJiaws (literally, "pleader") 
and a canitaw (a " guider," literally, a " hand-rail ").- 

It is in regard to real actions and to suits for galanas 
that we have the most detailed information, though 
even in regard to them it is hardly possible to give a clear 
and sure account of the whole procedure, and we cannot 
here attempt to do so. But the particulars the laws 
give as to the arrangement of the court for the decision 
of a claim to land on the day of trial are interesting. At 
the time appoiiited all concerned came " upon the land" 

' " The reason why the law shall be closed in autumn and spring is because 
the land is cultivated during those two periods ; lest ploughing in the spring 
and reaping in the autumn be impeded" (" Anc. Laws," i., p. 143). 

- The distinction was analogous to that between barristers and attorneys in 
the English courts. There is no reason for thinking it was taken from English 
practice, fgr .t is found in the Irish laws. The cyughaivs was there called 
" aighnc" (arguer), and the canHaiv appears as "/''' 'A'-" See O'Sullivan's 
Introduction to " O'Curry's Lectures," p. cclxxiii. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS, 243 

(i.e., the land in dispute), and then proceeded to " sit 
legally." The litigants and their assistants, with their 
witnesses, compurgators, and sureties, divided themselves 
into two parties, and stillness being proclaimed on the field, 
the members and officers of the court arranged themselves 
and the parties in the manner represented in the following 
table 1;— 

Gurda— Gurda — Heniuid — BRENIN — Heniuid— Gurda — Gurda. 
Effeyrat — Egnat Kymwd. Egnat Lys — Effiriatt. 

Kanttau — Amdififenur— Keghaus. Keghaus — Haulur — Kanttau. 

Rigytt. Righitt. 

After the court was thus constituted very formal oral 
pleadings took place, and the judges (who seem to have 
been the spokesmen and controllers of the court, even if the 
king were present), after giving the parties an opportunity 
of amending their pleadings, re-stated the contentions, and 
then retired to deliberate with a priest or priests and an 
usher. When they had taken their seats " in a judgment 
place " a priest prayed, and the judges chanted their Pater ; 
they then recited the pleadings a second time, and having 
done so, decided whether by law there was any necessity 
for the giving of evidence ; if they decided not, judgment 
was given simply on the pleadings, i.e., to the effect that 

1 We print the table as it appears in " Anc. Laws," i. , p. 146. We must, how- 
ever, translate the Welsh terms : Brenin = king ; heniuid [kytief/cf) = elder ; 
gtu-da {givrda) — good-man, uchelwr, breyr ; effeyrat and effiriatt = priest ; 
egnat kytnivd ~ judge of the cymwd ; egnat iiys = judge of the king's court, 
the chief justice ; katttiaii [cunH-azo), literally, hand-rail = guider ; keghaus 
{cynghaws)=^\e.a.(\e\- ; atndiffenur {amdiffynn-ior)=de^e:nAa.n\.; rigiii- [rhi n}>)di) 
= bailiff, apparitor, usher. It is clear this table is only a skeleton form. There 
might, for instance, be more than two gwyrda on each side. So, also, more 
than two elders. The gwyrda were the uchelwyr of the cymwd who had to 
attend the king on his progress through their district. Probably the elders were 
men of the king's cenedl, his near relations, accompanying him in his progress. 
The table represents the arrangement of the king's court ; but, no doubt, when 
an arglwytJ presided it afforded a precedent ; and, perhaps, also one for the 
ordinary court of the cymwd. The king sat with his back to the sun or the 
weather, lest the weather shoukl inccmmode his face. 

R 2 



244 ^^^ WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

one or the other contention as set forth was correct in law, 
and that there was no need to interrogate, i.e., to call 
witnesses. If, however, they held they could not decide 
simply on the pleadings they returned to the field and 
announced the fact, seemingly saying on whom lay the 
burden of proof, and two judges were appointed to 
question the parties and demand the production of their 
witnesses respectively. At this stage there nn'ght or might 
not be an adjournment, but ultimately the whole matter 
was decided by a trial by witnesses sworn on relics.^ 

We may here remark that there were three actions in 
regard to land : (i.) a suit to recover possession of land from 
which the plaintiff himself had been ousted ; (ii.) the suit 
called dade^iJmd, by which the plaintiff sought to recover 
a share of tir gwelyawg belonging to him in right of his 
father or ancestors within the smaller group we have 
described above ; - and(iii.) the plaint by kin and reckoning 
{p ach ac ediyu'''), by which one sought to establish his right 
to such land as he might be entitled to as a member of a 
cenedl (in the large sense as a group of descendants to the 
ninth degree from a common ancestor).'* 

The rules we have been considering were those applying 
to disputes about land, but it would seem that methods 
fundamentally similar were applied to other controversies. 
There were actions for the recovery of movable property 
or its value (to which we have adverted above), for enforcing 
suretyships, pledges, and obligations incurred by contract, 
as well as the more serious processes in regard to galanas, 
saraad, personal injuries, theft, and damage by fire. In 
regard to all these the normal mode of settlement was a 

^ It is hardly necessary to say that it was not everyone who could be a 
witness in regard to a suit concerning Cymric land, e.g., an atltud could not ; 
nor a woman as against a man, etc. (" Anc. Laws," i. , p. 153.) 

• See sj^ecially "Anc. Laws," i. 171-2 ; and above, p. 196. 

* This would be " ach ac edrif " in modern Welsh. 
< See " Anc. Laws," i., pp. 173-5 ; p. 467- 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 245 

trial by witnesses or by rhaith (compurgation). The rules 
as to the number and value of the members of the rhaith 
are complicated and obscure. The oath entered very 
largely into the administration of justice. It was taken 
in divers ways, sometimes on the gospels, sometimes on 
relics. The place of swearing varied ; it might be in a 
church or before the court. Trial by combat or other 
ordeal is not mentioned in the codes, but in a late treatise 
it is said Dyfnwal Moelmud estabhshed for cases of theft, 
galanas, or treason, three ordeals, those of boiling water, 
hot iron, and combat, and that Howel did not deem them 
just and substituted for them proof by men and rhaith;^ 
but all this is doubtful, though one may believe that trial 
by ordeal {i.e., an appeal to a divine authority) sometime 
existed among the Cymry, since it was a very ancient and 
widespread way of settling disputes. 

We have now given an outline of the legal organisation 
of the Cymry in the days of their independence as it may 
be gathered from their law-books, and to some extent we 
can fill it in by means of the information handed down to 
us in the works of a celebrated Welshman of the twelfth 
century. Gerald de Barri (usually called Giraldus Cam- 
brensis) was born in 1147 in the castle of Manorbeer, the 
ruins of which still stand on the rocks of the South 
Pembrokeshire coast. He came of a Welsh family which 
had a Norman strain, and his grandmother was the Nest — 
the " Helen of Wales " — who had been the mistress of 
Henry I., and afterwards wife of Gerald de Windsor, lord of 
Pembroke. His father, William de Barri, and other members 
of his family had joined in warfare in Ireland. We must 
not linger over the details of his life or of his persistent 
struggle to secure archiepiscopal status for St. David's, or in 
other words the independence of the Welsh Church. In that 
effort he failed, but he has left for us valuable books, of 
' " Anc. Laws," ii., p. 623. 



246 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

which the most relevant for our present purpose are the 
"Itinerarium Cambriae" and the "Descriptio CambriK."^ 

In 1 188 Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, journeyed 
through Wales to preach a crusade. He was accompanied by 
Giraldus, who recorded their experiences in the Itinerary. 
The second work is, as its name applies, a description of the 
country and the people. Notwithstanding some attempt 
at fine writing which may have led to undue emphasis on 
particular points, we have, no doubt, in these books a true 
record of the characteristics of the mediaeval Cymry from 
the pen of an able and honest observer. 

These and the laws being our principal authorities, we find 
that the condition of societ}^ in Wales was removed by very 
many degrees from a barbaric or nomadic stage, but it was 
backward as compared with the south-eastern Britain of 
that time. It may be that the economic progress of the 
scanty population of Wales had been checked by the war 
with Harold, the collapse of Gruffyd ab ILewelyn's 
power, and the subsequent course of events. Gerald deals 
with a people who had sustained many reverses, and who 
had been driven from the most fertile portions of their 
country by bands of Norman adventurers ; and it is 
obviously likely that these things told for a time against 
any great social advance, though it may be noted as a 
curious fact that it was in the eleventh century that modern 
Welsh poetry has its beginning, and that in that region 
of culture contact, whether friendly or inimical, with the 
Norman lords had a stimulating effect. Neither Howel 

' The works of Giraldus are to l)e found in tlie Rolls series, vols. i. , ii., iii., 
iv. (ed. by Professor Brewer), vols, v., vi., vii. (ed. by tlie Rev. J. F. Dyniock). 
" The Topography and History of the Conquest of Ireland " (translated by 
Thomas Forester), and the " Itinerary through Wales," and the " Description 
of Wales" (translated by Sir R. Colt Hoare, fSart. ) are published in vol. vii. 
Bohn's Antiquarian Library (ed. by Thomas Wright, F. S.A.). For his life, 
see "Diet. Nat. Biog. ," sub noiii. ; the introduction to vol. i. in the Rolls 
series; and "Gerald the Welshman,'' by Henry Owen, B.C. L., F.S.A. 
(Lond., 1889). 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 247 

Da nor Grufifyd ab ILewelyn, the only two chieftains of the 
Cymry who, after Rhodri Mawr, had played any really 
considerable part in the affairs of the island, were celebrated 
by contemporary bards whose works have come down to 
our time ; but from the end of the eleventh century we 
find many poems devoted to the praise (often in extrava- 
gant language) of princes some of whom were hardly of 
a position higher than that of a petty lord-marcher. 

In the centuries with which we are dealing Wales 
presented a physical aspect very different from that which 
it does to-day. The greater part was waste land on which 
the foot of man rarely trod, mere boulder-strewn moorland, or 
boggy tract ; and large portions of the estates now divided 
into farm holdings and highly cultivated were covered with 
trees that have disappeared. The roads (if we exclude the 
few which seem to derive their origin from the time of 
Roman occupation) were mere mountain tracks. There 
were practically no enclosures apart from the mounds or 
wooden fences which were made around the houses of the 
more important families.^ 

When Giraldus wrote, towns were beginning to arise 
under the shelter of some of the Norman castles, but there 
were no truly Cymric towns. Caerleon on Usk was in 
ruins, and Chester was in Norman hands.- The social and 

1 Rice Merrick, in his " Booke of Glamorganshire Antiquities" (1578), 
(new ed. by James Andrew Corbett, fok, Lond., 1887), referring to the Vale 
of Glamorgan, says it was ' ' a champyon and open country without great store 
of inclosures," and that the old men reported that " their ffore-fathers told 
them that great part of th' enclosures was made in their dales" (" Cambrian 
Register" (1796), pp. gf-8 ; " Report," p. 663). 

- Giraldus says, " This city (Caerleon) was of undoubted antiquity and 
handsomely built of masonry, with courses of bricks, by the Romans. Many 
vestiges of its former splendour may still be seen ; immense palaces formerly 
ornamented with gilded roofs in imitation of Roman magnificence, inasmuch 
as they were first raised by Roman pi-inces, and embellished with splendid 
buildings ; a tower of prodigious size, remarkable hot baths, relics of temples, 
and theatres all inclosed within fine walls, part of which remain standing, etc." 
("Desc," i., c. 5.) The castle of Cardiff was surrounded by high walls, and 



248 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

domestic life of the Welsh centred round the timber-built 
houses of the kings, princes, lords or uchelwyr which were 
scattered in the valleys and on the lower slopes of the hills. 
Except, perhaps, in some of the villein-trefs, there were no 
villages or clusters of dwelling-houses close adjoining one 
another, though the principal hall of men of higher position 
had the usual out-buildings. The dwellings of some families 
were duplicated ; in the summer they lived in a house on 
the higher part of their property called the havod-dy 
(literally, "summer-house"), and in winter returned to the 
principal residence {hen-dref, literally, the " old-stead ") set 
up in a more sheltered place below. 

The broad conclusion we draw from the sources we have 
mentioned is that in the twelfth century the Cymry were a 

Giraldus refers to the c/Vj as containing; many soldiers. Tlie "Brut," in one 
of its versions, says, under the year 1080, "the building of Cardiff began." 
This is not in the " Brut" reproduced in the Oxford series. It occurs in the 
MS. called D, by Ab Ithel (see preface to Rolls ed., p. xlvi). The MS. is in 
the B. M. Cottonian collection, marked "Cleopatra, B. v.," and is of the 
fifteenth century. Whether this entry means that the building of Cardiff castle, 
or that of the town, began, the date seems too early (see below, as to the 
conquest of Glamorgan). The date of the foundation of Swansea castle is 
uncertain, but it was later than that of Cardiff. Colonel Morgan, of Bryniailu, 
has been good enough to send us an interesting communication as to Swansea 
(in Welsh Abertawe), which is, however, too long to reproduce here. He 
argues that (i) Swansea, Sweyneshe, Sweineshe (the two latter are the earliest 
forms) is to be identified with the Sein Ilenyd of the "Brut" {s.aa. 1215, 
1221) ; and (ii) that the name Sweyneshe, etc., is derived from Sein Henyd. 
We are of opinion that the first of these propositions is true, but we do not 
think that the place-name Sweyneshe, etc., and Sein Henyd have anything 
to do with one another. The " w" in the accepted English name is one of 
the most considerable difficulties in the way of adopting Colonel Morgan's 
second suggestion. There are place-names of Danish or Scandinavian, or at 
any rate non-Welsh, origin to be found on or near the sea-coast of South 
Wales. Consider Sully, Haverford, Stackpole, Hulberston, Angle, Herbrand- 
ston, Gateholm, Stockholm, Skimer, Musselwick, Haroldston, Ramsey, and 
Strumble. See Clark's '• Mediaeval Military Architecture in England,'' p. 15 
(Lond., 1884). Giraldus calls Carmarthen an "ancient city," and notices 
that it was strongly enclosed with walls of bricks, part of which were stilj 
standing (" De^c," i. , c. 10). Dinevwr, higher up the Towy, was the seat of 
the Soutli Welsh princes. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 249 

warlike pastoral people, who had been settled on their lands 
for centuries, but who had made only slight progress in 
agriculture and the other practical arts, and who had 
advanced more quickly in regard to intellectual exercises, 
poetry, and music than in regard to material prosperity 
and higher morality. 

We have only space to mention a few details concerning 
them from which we think this generalisation will appear 
to be true. The principal crops referred to in the laws 
and Giraldus's works are wheat, barley, and oats. The 
plough, the scythe, and other farming implements (which 
were, however, of primitive construction) are mentioned. 
The ridges were generally ploughed straight upward, and 
the Commissioners found their form still visible in some 
places.^ They also saw indications that slopes and even 
summits of hills, which are not now and have not been for 
a very long period arable land, had at some former time 
been ploughed. 

In the laws yokes . of four different lengths are men- 
tioned : — The ber-iau, or short yoke of three feet, for two 
oxen ; the mei-iau, or field yoke of six feet, for four oxen ; 
the ceseil-imi, or auxiliary yoke of nine feet, for six oxen ; 
and the hir-iau, or long yoke of twelve feet, for eight oxen.- 
The Welsh farmer seldom, however, yoked less than four 
oxen to the plough. The driver walked backward, and 
instead of a small sickle in mowing he made use of a 
moderate-sized piece of iron formed like a knife with two 
pieces of wood fixed loosely and flexibly to the head."^ In 
the month of March only the soil was once ploughed for 
oats, and again in the summer a third time, and in the 
winter for wheat. 

' " Report, p. 657. 

"" See "Report," p. 657: The measurements are in the English standard. 
Pughe, in his "Welsh Dictionary," says the Welsh used four sorts of yoke until 
about 1600. 

•* Giraldub Cambrensis, " Desc. Camb.," book 1., c. 17. 



250 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

Giraldus's remarks seem, for the most part, to apply to 
the Cymry proper, though there is a good deal to show 
that by his time there was considerable admixture of classes 
or races. 

Hospitality and liberality were among the first of their 
virtues. The house of the Cymro was common to all. 
The traveller was not offered, nor did he beg entertainment. 
He simply delivered up his arms : he was then under the 
natvd (peace) of the pcntciilu (head of the household). 
Water was brought to him, and if he suffered his feet to be 
washed, he became a guest of the house ; if he refused 
water, he was understood to be simply asking for morning 
refreshment and not lodging for the night. Strangers 
arriving early were entertained by the conversation of the 
young women of the housi hold and the music of harps. 
The principal meal was served in the evening. It varied 
according to the number and dignity of the persons 
assembled and the degrees of the wealth of different house- 
holds. In any case it was a simple repast ; there were no 
tables, no cloths, no napkins ; the guests were seated in 
messes of three ; all the dishes were at once set before 
them in large platters on rushes or grass spread on the 
floor. The food consisted of milk, cheese, butter, meat 
plainly cooked. " The kitchen did not supply many dishes 
nor high-seasoned incitements to eating." The bread was 
served as a thin and broad cake, fresh baked every day,^ 
and broth with chopped-up meat in it was sometimes 
added. The family waited on the guests, and the host 
and hostess stood up until their needs were satisfied. The 
evening was enlivened by songs and recitations by the bard 
of the household or by minstrels who in their wandering 
had joined the company, and seemingly also by choral 
singing. 

' Cjiialdus says il was "lagana" in tlie old writings. It was evidently like 
tlie " bake-stone " bread— /'t7>-rt //awe or bara ftech — of modern days. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 251 

A bed made of rushes and covered with a coarse kind 
of cloth made in the country called bryclian, was then 
placed along the side of the hall, and the family and guests 
lay down to sleep in common.^ The fire on the hearth in 
the centre continued to burn all night. 

From Giraldus we get little information as to the clothes 
of the Welsh ; he says that at all seasons they defended 
themselves from the cold only by a thin cloak and tunic ; 
but the laws give the worth of other articles of wearing 
apparel, e.g., a mantle of rich dark colour ; a town-made 
mantle ; a town-made cap ; a town-made coat (pais); a 
home-made covering ; shirt and trousers ; a head-cloth ;^ 
robes of the king and queen, and of an uchelwr and his 
wife, etc.^ 

As to their personal habits the- Cymry seem to have been 
cleanly.* In the laws we have allusions to the bath ; the 
custom of offering water to guests has just been referred 
to. Both sexes cut their hair short — close round to their 
ears and eyes. The men shaved all their beard except the 
moustache. All paid great attention to their teeth, which 

1 Giraldus does not mention pillows, but in the Ven. Code, iii., c. 22, a legal 
price (giuerth) is placed on the pillow {gobenny^) of the king and on that of an 
uchelwr, thus showing they were in use. A price is also put on a sheet (Men, 
or in the laws ifeniiyeyn'). As late as the fifteenth century the English 
"gentry, who slept on down beds, or beds stuffed with rabbits' fur and other 
materials which passed for down, still went naked to their slumbers ; the poor, 
who slept on bundles of fern or on trusses of straw spread on the ground, slept 
in the dress they had worn during the day, and the cloak or cassock of the 
ploughman was his only counterpane" (Denton, " England in the Fifteenth 
Century," p. 206). Down to the early years of this century it was not unusual 
in Wales for people to go to bed naked. 

" Giraldus says the women covered their heads with a large white veil folded 
together in the form of a crown. 

•' See Ven. Code, iii., c. 22 ; but book iii. was collected from books later 
than Howel's time as well as from the old book of the "White House." See 
the prefaces to it. 

'• The account given by Giraldus of the Cymry in this regard is very favour- 
able as compared v, ith his remarks on the barbarism of the Irish ("Top. 
Irel.," iii., c. 10). 



252 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

they rendered like ivory by constantly rubbing them with 
green hazel and wiping them with a woollen cloth. 

For the Cymry proper — the leading families — the chief 
business of life was warfare. " They were entirely bred up 
to the use of arms ;" but the language of Giraldus is general, 
and according to him '\fill the people are trained to war." 
When " the trumpet sounds the alarm, the husbandman 
rushes as eagerly from his plough as the courtier from his 
Court." We have seen that in the laws of Howel it was 
only the tribesmen who formed the host ; to the eiiition 
only the subordinate duties of a campaign were entrusted ; 
but the words we have quoted seem to indicate that the 
settlement of the Normans in the land had brought about 
a change in the military arrangements, and thig is confirmed 
by indications from other sources. 

The higher classes {nobiliores, i.e., uchelwyr) went forth 
to battle on horseback, though they did not hesitate to 
dismount if necessary, either for marching or combat. The 
great majority of the men of the host fought on foot. The 
armour of all was so light as not to impede the quick move- 
ments on which they depended for success. The uchelwyr, 
and seemingly most of the foot soldiers (of tribal privilege) 
as well, wore small coats of mail, helmets, and sometimes 
greaves plated with iron. In marching they often walked 
barefoot, but in battle array they appear ordinarily to have 
worn high shoes roughly made with untanned leather.^ 

^ It is clear that even men of the upper class did not wear boots on many 
occasions, even of some importance. On the morning after leaving the house of 
Strata Florida, the archbishop and (iiraklus met one Cyneuric ab Rhys (evidently 
of noble descent), accompanied by a body of light-armed youths. Ciiraldus 
describes him thus : "This young man was of a fair complexion, with curled 
hair, tall and handsome, clothed only according to the custom of his country, 
with a thin cloak and inner garment, his legs and feet, regardless of thorns and 
thistles, were left bare ; a man not adorned by art but by nature ; bearing in his 
presence an innate, not an acquired, dignity of manners" ("Itin.," book ii., 
c. 4). In the laws a price is set on wadded boots (botessait kenhenlanc), shoes 
with thongs {eskydycu carcyatu), and on buskins (i^uyiilcssfii). 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 253 

Their chief weapons were the sword, the lance or spear, 
the battle-axe, and the bow and arrow ; and in the time of 
Giraldus the men of Gwent were deemed more expert in 
archery than those of the other parts of Cymru.^ 

The fighting in which the Cymry excelled was of the 
guerilla kind. They did not shine much in open engage- 
ments or regular conflicts, but were skilful in harassing the 
enemy by ambuscades and nightly sallies. As a rule they 
made no determined struggle for the field of battle." In 
their onset they were bold and rapid ; they filled the air 
with horrid shouts ^ and the deep-toned clangour of very 
long trumpets ; if repulsed, they were easily thrown into 
confusion, and trusted to flight for safety. But though 
defeated one day they were ever ready to resume the 
combat on the next ; they were active and hardy ; able 
to sustain hunger and cold ; not easily fatigued by war- 
like exercise, and above all not despondent in adversity. 
Giraldus sums up the matter by saying that they were " as 
easy to overcome in a single battle as difficult to subdue in 
a protracted war."^ We ought to add that it is probable 

' The Ven. Code sets a price on "a bow and twelve arrows " (dtia a deiidec 
saet), a spear (giiaejt), a battle-axe {are/ bjiyaii), and on a sword {cledyf) rough- 
ground, a sword dark-bladed, and a sword white-bladed ("Anc. Laws," i., 
p. 305). In one passage Giraldus refers to the lances as long (" Desc.,"i., c. 8); 
in another he mentions frequent throwing of darts ("Desc," ii., c. 3). The 
Welsh, therefore, probably had two kinds of spear. "A sword, and spear, 
and bow with twelve arrows in the quiver," was the traditional equipment of 
the head of a Cymric household (" Anc. Laws," ii., p. 557). 

- Gruffyd ab Lewelyn in his Hereford campaigns against Ralph acted 
exceptionally. But notice how he avoided a pitched battle with Harold when 
the latter changed the conditions by lightly equipping his men. See above, 
p. 172. 

^ So says Giraldus (" Desc," ii., c. 3). Cf. the poem in praise of Lewelyn ab 
Madoc, ascribed to one Lywarch Lew Cad. The bard calls Lewelyn " com- 
mander of the men of terrible shout " (Eawr gaivr gortichel y ivir). Stephens's 
"Lit. of the Kymry" (2nd ed.), p. 53. 

'' See " Desc," book ii., c 3. It should be noticed, further, as an illustration 
of the character of the warfare, that the Cymry gave no quarter ("Desc," 
book ii., c. 8). 



254 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

that during the period of about one hundred and forty years 
that elapsed between the death of Grufif)'d ab ILeweiyn and 
the time at \\iiich Giraldus wrote, intercourse and fiCThtingr 
with the Normans had done much to improve the equip- 
ment and mihtary methods of the C)'mr}-.^ 

Giraldus bears warm testimony to the pnjficiency of the 
Cymry in the art of music. They used three instruments 
— the harp, the pipes, and the crwth.- In their concerts 
they did not sing in unison, but in different parts. He 
remarks that the people in the northern district of Britain 
beyond the H umber and on the borders of Yorkshire made 
use of the same kind of " symphonious harmonx'," but with 
less variety, singing only in two parts, one murmuring 
in the bass, the other warbling in the acute or treble. 

Much attention was paid by them to poetry. Bards were 
important members of the community, as we know also 
from the laws. They were organised in some fashion into 
a kind of separate order, though we have no certain evidence 
as to the rules of their craft or guild in those early days.'^ 
Every considerable household had its domestic bard {barct 
teulii). Besides the duty of entertaining by song he had 
care of any documents that concerned the family of his 
patron ; he was the preserver of the genealogy of the 
kindred ; and often the teacher and companion of his 
chieftain's children. Whether by positive enactment or by 
usage, the practice of making tours of the country arose. 

' See "Desc," book ii., c. 7. 

- (jir. "Top. Ireland" Dist., iii., c. il ; "Desc. Camb.," i., c. 12. The 
ciwth or crowd was a kind of early violin. The pipes seem to have been bag- 
pipes, and were olijecls of ridicule to the bards. For a summary of what is 
known as to early Welsh music, see Stephens' " Literature of the Kymry " 
(2nd ed.), pp. 55-69. 

^ It is traditionally believed Gruffyd ab Kynan, king of Gwyned, made 
rules for the government of the bardic order, but the proof is not satisfactory. 
See as to the Eistedfod, p. 516, below. The Brut (.v.(i'. 1176) records that 
Lord Rhys lieid a grand festival, at which there were musical competitions, in 
t!ie castle of Alicileivi. 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 255 

The bards went from house to house, quartering themselves 
on the households : the higher grade of bards only went to 
the palaces of princes and the greater nobles ; the lower 
grades had the range of the establishments of meaner men. 

Extravagant pretensions as to the antiquity of this Cymric 
bardic order have been advanced ; it has been claimed for 
the bards of the twelfth century that their organisation was 
a direct survival of that of the Druidic hierarchy ; and that 
they were the depositories of a mysterious system of religion 
and philosophy orally handed down to them from the 
priests of the oak, and thence transmitted without break 
to our own day. There is, however, no proof of any formal 
connection between the Druidic priesthood and the bardic 
system as it appears in Wales in the twelfth century. 
There is no certain evidence that Druidism had spread to 
that part of the island whence Cuneda and the ancestors 
of the Cymry came. Centuries before their settlement 
in Wales Druidism had been suppressed by the Roman 
government, and there is nothing to show that the sacer- 
dotal class, practically destroyed by Paulinus, ever regained 
its authority or maintained its organisation.^ 

From the Roman conquest of Mon to the time of 
Gruffyd ab Kynan over one thousand years had elapsed. 
Christianity had for a long period been the only legally 
recognised religion, and was probably professed by 
Cuned'a and his followers. It had, first in its Celtic, 
and afterwards in its Roman form, obtained a secure and 
undisputed position in the land. If to these considerations 
we add the facts that none of the bardic MSS. are older 
than the twelfth century, and that competent criticism of 
the bardic remains leads to the conclusion that this so-called 

^ Mon, " the last asylum of the Celtic priesthood," was conquered by 
G. Seutonius Paulinus in A.D. 6i, and finally subdued by lulius Agricola in 
A.D. 78. Mommsen's " Provinces of the Roman Empire " (Eng. Tr.), 
V. I, pp. 179, T82. 



256 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

Druidism was confined to the bards themselves, and that 
as an institution it was then of recent origin,' we must 
dismiss the claims we have been discussing as mere inven- 
tions or efforts of the imagination which have been ignorant ly 
and uncritically adopted and developed in after times. On 
the other hand, it must be conceded that the office of domestic 
bard is one which is found in the earliest historic times 
among Indo-European nations ; that there are many items 
of evidence which show an intimate connection between 
singers, story-tellers, and the like, and the priesthoods of 
early forms of religion ; and that the memory may be so 
cultivated that rites, formula;, poems, and tales may be 
orally handed down from generation to generation for an 
indefinite time. It must also be admitted that many pagan 
notions and customs survived among the people long after 
Christianity had obtained its formal hold on the community. 
The bardic poems of later date may be the genuine echoes 
of the conceptions of the religion of a distant past, and 
contain the dim recollections of true historical events;- but 
there is nothing in all this that need alter the opinion we 
have expressed, that there is no proof of any direct con- 
nection between the bardic order in mediaeval Wales and 
the Druidic system described by Caesar. However this 
may be, the genuine laws and the words of Giraldus give 
to the bards of Wales a very respectable position in the 
society of the time, and accord their profession a reasonable 
and satisfactory antiquity. 

Among the characteristics of the Welsh, Giraldus notices 
their wit and pleasantry. They were fluent and bold in 
conversation ; in their rhymed songs and set speeches 
they were so subtle and ingenious that they produced 



^ See the chapter on "Bards and Bardisni," in Stephens's "Lit. of the 
Kymry," p. 84. 

- See Matthew Arnold's " Esfay on tlie Study of Celtic Literature" (Lond., 
1S67) ; Skene's " Four Ancient Bonks of \Vales'" (Edin., 1868, 2 vols.). 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 257 

" ornaments of wonderful and exquisite invention, both 
in the words and sentences." 

They greatly esteemed noble birth and generous descent. 
All retained their genealogy and could readily repeat the 
names of their ancestors to the sixth or seventh generation 
or beyond, and when we think of the laws we can readily 
understand this to have been the case.^ They were, at any 

' As late as the time of Norden's survey of Abenbury, a township adjoining 
Wrexham (1620), a gentleman of estate gave his name as Humfridus ap 
Robert ap Will'm ap Rob't ap David ap Griffith ap Robert. (Seebohm, 
" Tribal System," p. 85, note.) This is stated on ttie authority of Mr. A. N. 
Palmer. Though it was not every one who could give his style with this fulness, 
the method of identifying a person by coupling his christian name with those of 
his immediate ancestors lingered long in Wales. It is not easy to fix the time when 
the use of surnames became general among all classes. The noticeable thing now 
is the paucity of surnames in this populjous area. Those that usually occur are 
mostly baptismal names taken from the Bible spelt in divers ways. This is 
especially so in the Welsh-speaking districts. The number of Joneires, Davieses, 
Williamses, Thomases, etc., on public bodies and juries is often the subject of jest, 
and sometimes the cause of inconvenience. The usual explanation of the few- 
ness of surnames in the Welsh area is that the officials of the Welsh courts, the 
coroners, and lawyers found the Welsh custom of stringing together a series of 
baptismal names troublesome, and that in the jury process, etc., they abridged 
the style of the person with whom they were dealing. Thus they summoned 
a juror, not by the style he would have given himself, but as, e.^i^., William ap 
John, or Gulielmus ap Johannes, which often repeated became William Jones, 
and was acquiesced in by a too patient people. In rural districts, to avoid 
ambiguity, farmers often referred to one another by the names of their holdings 
(e.g., John Maeseghvys, where the latter word is the name of John's holding), 
and we have known this recently done by witnesses in the courts. In later 
times the inconvenience has been to some extent met among the professional 
and middle classes by the conferring of a second and distinctive christian name 
{e.^., W. Tudor Howell, T. Eytioii Davies, John Morlais Jones — where the 
intermediate names are the only distinguishing marks). The use of bardic names 
is not uncommon. Thus, the late Dr. William Rees, uf Chester, is al\\ays 
spoken of as " Hiraethog," and Mr. William Abraham, M.P., is called by 
most Welshmen "Mabon," in public and private. People are reluctant to 
change their surnames, because they do not wish to lose touch with their 
relations, and fear that in property matters there may be difficulty later on 
in proof of identity, birth, etc. It would be a great advantage if some 
method of formal registration of change of name could be established in 
each (ounty. For information as to Welsh surnames see a series of papers by 
Mr. T. E. Morris, LL.M., B.A., in " Byegones ' for Oct., 1893, t^eb., 1894, 
April, 1897, and Jan. and Feb., 1900. 

W.P. S 



258 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

rate outwardly, very religious ; when one of them met a 
priest or monk he asked his blessing " with extended arms 
and bowing head"; they showed greater respect than other 
nations to churches and the clergy, to relics, bells, holy 
books, and the cross. 

So far our account gives a pleasant view of the Welsh 
people in these mediaeval times, but there is a darker side 
to Giraldus's picture. In language which recalls in some 
degree the rhetoric of Gildas, he points out very grave 
blemishes in the character and mode of life of the Cymry. 
He describes them as wanting in respect to oaths, faith 
and truth ; as so indifferent to the covenant of faith that 
they went through the ceremony of holding forth the right 
hand on trifling occasions and to emphasise mere ordinary 
assertions ; and worse still as not scrupling to take false 
oaths in legal causes. He says they habitually committed 
acts of plunder, theft and robber)', not only against 
foreigners but against their own countrymen. They were 
addicted to trespassing and the removal of landmarks, and 
there were continual disputes between brothers. They were 
immoderate in their love of food and intoxicating drinks. 

Though the language of Giraldus is strong, and his 
strictures arc severe, there can be no doubt that there is 
substantial truth in what he sa}'s, but by way of qualifi- 
cation it must be pointed out that he was a stern and 
imperious ecclesiastic, that he was looking at the condition 
of things from the point of view of the Norman-English 
government, so far as civil matters were concerned, and 
that he completely ignores the injustice that had been done 
by the conquest of the greater part of the south by Norman 
adventurers. What he meant by false swearing was almost 
a necessary result of a legal system, which made an oath an 
incident of ordinary transactions, and which in judicial 
proceedings multiplied the number of compurgators to an 
unusual degree. Especial allowance must be made for 



ANCIENT LAWS AND CUSTOMS. 259 

this kind of perjury in the case of men who regarded the 
tie of blood as the strongest social bond, and in a time 
when a trial was not an inquiry into issues of fact to be 
decided by witnesses in our modern sense, but one depend- 
ing on a complicated method of swearing and counter- 
swearing by rheithwyr, who came to regard themselves not 
as being charged with the duty of saying what they had 
actually seen or heard, but of standing by a kinsman in 
trouble. So too much may be urged in extenuation of 
their trespassing and plundering. For in the early years 
of the conquest, at any rate, the men of the Norman lord 
were quite as ready to seize any cattle they could lay 
hands on as any Cymric youths, and many violent acts 
of the Welsherie were justifiable, because the cattle they 
carried off in their raids were looked on as being taken in 
lieu of those of which they had been despoiled. Their 
trespasses on and " ambitious seizures " of land in the 
occupation of invaders need from an impartial standpoint 
no justification ; but the continued litigation about land 
among themselves and the habits of forcible entry (as we 
should say) by one relative as against another, though 
easily to be explained as the consequence of the rules con- 
cerning succession to tir gwelyawg, must be condemned as 
a proof of those serious defects in the typical Cymric 
character, of which such striking illustration is afforded by 
the failure of the nation to effect any stable and lasting 
political combination. 

But when every allowance is made, the Cymry proper, 
whom Giraldus describes, were a wild and turbulent race, 
dangerous neighbours, and impatient of settled control 
from any quarter,^ a set of men very unlike the singularly 

1 Head the adventures of Owain ab Cadwgan, in the " Brut,"' j-.a. 1106, 
and in following entries and pp. 293 et seq. below. See also Wynne's 
"History of the Gwydyr Family," which shows how disorderly were tlie 
habits of a later day. 

S 2 



26o THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vi.) 

law-abiding Welsh people of to-day.^ They were a quick, 
impulsive race, wanting in moderation, indulging in 
extremes of conduct, and we readily follow Giraldus when 
in ending his first book he says that " this nation is earnest 
in all its pursuits, and neither worse men than the bad, 
nor better than the good can be met with." 

' The comparative absence of crime in the distinctively Welsh counties has 
been noticeable for many years, and is often a topic of comment by judges of 
assize and chairmen of quarter sessions. 



CHAPTER VII. 

HISTORY OF WALES FROM I066 TO 1 282. 

It was the Norman conquest of England that led to the 
absorption first of large areas, and later on of the whole, of 
Wales into the English system. This absorption did not 
fully take place for about 500 years ; and some 220 years 
elapsed before the whole of the country was placed in 
a position of actual and practical dependence on the 
English Government. It is a circumstance worth noting 
that while the English counties were conquered by the 
Normans in a comparatively few years, and almost by 
a single stroke, the Norman-English kings and their 
followers were only able to effect the subjugation of 
Cymru in a very gradual and tedious manner. 

An eminent historian says in reference to the commence- 
ment of the Norman invasion of Cymru, " The conquest 
which now began, that which we may call either the 
English or the Norman conquest of Wales, differed widely 
both from the English conquest of Britain and from the 
Norman conquest of England. It wrought far less change 
than the landing at Ebbsfleet ; it wrought far more change 
than the landing at Pevensey. The Briton of those lands, 
which in the Red King's day were still British, was 
gradually conquered ; he was gradually brought under 
English rule and English law, but he was neither exter- 
minated, nor enslaved, nor wholly assimilated. He still 
abides in his ancient land, still speaking his ancient tongue. 



262 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

The English or Norman conquest of Wales was not a 
national migration, like the English conquest of Britain, nor 
was it a conquest wrought under the guise of an elaborate 
legal fiction, like the Norman conquest of England." ^ 

The process by which the conquest of Wales was 
effected is one that cannot be described as simpl}- 
military, but rather as being both military and economic. 
If we may judge from the records of the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries, the Welsh chieftains were in the 
battles fought from time to time nearly as successful, 
and often more so, than the Norman invaders ; but 
the greater resources and wealth of the latter gradually 
led to their military predominance, while such evidence 
as we possess in the work of Giraldus Cambrensis leads 
to the conclusion that when he wrote not only a relative, 
but an absolute, diminution of the Cymric or Welsh- 
speaking population had taken place. However this 
may be, it was by the building of castles on the Norman 
plan and by actual settlement that the process became 
successful. What appears to have been done was this : - 
at points conveniently situated near the more fertile lands, 
and most suitable for military defence or operations, a 
castle was built and garrisoned. Gradually the Cymry 
were ousted from the cultivated area, or else became, on 
some terms or other, the tenants of the Norman lord. 
From the coign of vantage afforded by the castle, the 
Norman lord waged continual warfare against the 
natives, and as he gradually forced them further and 
further into the less desirable areas of the country he 

' Freeman, " William Rufiis," vol. ii., p. 72. Though the generalisations 
in this paragraph are (we agree) substantially true, we cannot help pointing 
out that the phrase " English conquest of ]!ritain " is not strictly accurate. 
Unless a very unreasonable extension is given to the terms " P2nglish " and 
"conquest," the English had conquered only a part of Britain before 1066. 

- See the account of the Lords Marchers in Clive's " I^udlow" (London, 1841 ) 
rom a manuscript in the Lansdowne collection (now in British Museum), p. loi. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 263 

extended his power, seizing cymwd after cymwd and 
cantref after cantref. In time towns began to spring 
up under the shelter of the castle walls, settlement from 
England was encouraged, charters conferring municipal 
privileges were from time to time conferred upon the 
settlers, and most of the early charters of the Welsh 
boroughs, drawing, as they do, an acute distinction between 
Englishmen and Welshmen, mark the nature of the struggle 
which went on during these years.^ 

The ultimate outcome of the process was that by the 
middle of the thirteenth century nearly the whole of what 
is now Wales, except the counties of Anglesey, Carnarvon, 
part of Denbighshire, and Merionethshire, the area roughly 
corresponding to the ancient kingdom of Gwyned, had 
passed into the hands of the Norman-English king or 
Norman lords, who came to be described by lawyers as 
" lords marchers," who were feudal vassals of the king 
of England, though they exercised in their respective lord- 
ships practically supreme power. As Freeman observes, 
" Wales is, as every one knows, pre-eminently the land 
of castles. Through those districts with which we are 
specially concerned, castles great or small, or the ruins or 
traces of such castles, meet us at every step. . . . The 
castles are in truth the leading architectural features of 
the country. The churches, mostly small and plain, might, 
themselves, with their fortified towers, almost count as 
castles. The towns, almost all of English foundations, 

^ Before the Norman Conquest, the Cymry did not for their defence build 
stone castles or fortresses. Their defensive works consisted "of a mound 
with a moat, and a timber building prcjtected l)y palisades on the mound." 
(See Clark's " Mediaeval Military Architecture in England," Lond. 1884, 
pp. 23, 24.) Clark says there is not a shadow of evidence that they (the 
Welsh) constructed any new defensive works in masonry upon the Roman 
models, or even repaired those that were left to them in the same material. 
{/did p. 12.) See, however, the Rev. S. Earing-Gould's paper on " Early 
Fortifications in Wales" in "Trans, of the Hon. Soc. of Cymmrodorion," 
Sess. 1898-99, p. I. 



264 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

were mostly small ; they were military colonies rather than 
seats of commerce. As Wales had no immemorial cities, like 
Exeter and Lincoln, so she had no towns which sprang up into 
greatness in later times, like Bristol, Norwich, and Coventry. 
Every memorial of former days which we see in the British 
land reminds us how long warfare remained the daily 
business alike of the men in that land and of the strangers 
who had made their way into it at the sword's point." ^ 

The significance of the castle is that it is the mark of a 
lordship which formerly existed, and which may even at 
the present day remain for legal purposes, as forming 
the root of title to the possession cf land or the exercise 
of some seigniorial right. 

The detailed history of this gradual conquest has never 
been written with an adequate comprehension of the facts 
as a whole, though the county histories and many books 
written concerning Welsh families or particular lordships 
preserve the story with substantial accuracy. One general 
comment we have to make : that we are immensely-struck 
with the continuity of the whole history. The evidence 
that the Commission obtained with regard to different 
estates and much of the information that they collected 
indicate that the settlement of the Norman in a particular 
cantref did not operate so as to cause an absolute break in 
local organisation and local life. The lordship or the sub- 
lordship oftentimes appears to have become coterminous 
with a cantref or a cymwd, and probably in its actual 
visible working the individual conquest from a legal point 
of view only led to the Norman conqueror's exercising a 
right and jurisdiction very analogous to that of the Welsh 
arghvyci in lieu of the dispossessed Cymro, and the holding 
of the court in the new castle instead of the older timber- 
built house of the Welsh chieftain, under the officers of the 
former instead of those of the latter. 

' Freeman, "William Rufus," vol. ii., p. 777. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 265 

Another general observation which our experience 
enables us to make is that Wales as a whole for a long 
time presented a striking want of constitutional uniformity, 
and the traces of that condition of things still remain. 
The historian whom we have more than once quoted says : 
— " Wales for a long time after the time with which we 
are now dealing was as far from uniformity as any land 
east of the Adriatic. Here was the castle of the Norman 
lord, with his following, Norman, English, Flemish, any- 
thing but British. Here was the newly founded town, with 
its free burghers, again Norman, English, Flemish, anything 
but British. Here again was a whole district from which 
the British Briton had passed away as thoroughly as he had 
passed away from Kent or Norfolk, but which the Norman 
had not taken into his own hands. He had found that it 
suited his purpose to leave it in the hands of the hardy and 
industrious Fleming, the last wave of Low Dutch occupa- 
tion in the isle of Britain. And alongside of all there was 
the still independent Briton, still keeping his moors and 
mountains, still ready to pour down from them upon the 
richer lands which had been his father's, but which had 
passed into the stranger's yrasp. Those days have long 
passed away ; for three centuries and more Briton and 
Englishman have been willing members of a common state, 
willing subjects of a common sovereign. But the memory 
of those days has not passed away ; it abides in the most 
living of all witnesses. England has for ages spoken a 
single tongue, her own ancient speech, modified by the 
coming of the conquerors of 800 years ago ; but in Wales 
the speech of her conquerors, the speech of England, is 
still only making its way slowly and fitfully against the 
abiding resistance of that stubborn British tongue which 
has survived three conquests."^ 

' Freeman, "William Rufiis," vol. ii., ]\ 74. As to the settlement of 
Flemings in Wales, see above, pp. 27-9. 



266 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

The next remark that we have to make is that if 
we want to form a true picture of the actual facts 
taking place from year to year during the times with 
which we arc dealing, we must notice the different inter- 
pretations placed upon events by those who approached 
their consideration from the Norman or English and 
from the Welsh point of view. We have seen above 
that before the Norman had placed his foot as conqueror 
upon English soil Wales, or, to speak more accurately, the 
cantrefs and cymwds, the areas and the names of which 
had been handed down from generation to generation, was 
parcelled out among lords, princes, or kings, exercising 
customary rights over their own portions. We have seen 
that the whole of this region was governed or regulated 
by a tribal system as strong as any statutory laws. The 
mere fact of a particular cymwd or cantref being violently 
taken possession of by a Norman or English stranger in 
no way, from the Welsh point of view, affected status and 
rights. The pretensions of the heads of the Welsh families 
remained precisely the same and were recognised to the 
same extent by their relations and dependants after the 
building of a new castle by an intruder or the loss of a 
series of battles, as before. The Welsh arglwyd retreated 
to the higher ground, fortified as well as he could his 
house, and sometimes imitated with skill the fortress of 
the stranger. The contest, when once the castle was 
built and adequately garrisoned, was however a hopeless 
one for the Welshman. The point to be noticed is that, 
though practically defeated and ousted from his c}'mwd, 
his cantref, or his gwlad, the Welshman still maintained 
his legal theory, and did not recognise the stranger's 
rights. In fact superseded, the Welshman at first still 
called himself and deemed himself justly the lord of the 
concjuered territory, and to such an extent as the occupiers 
of the soil, whether free tribesmen or taeogion, recognised 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 267 

him, he was so in fact. Probably, however, the actual 
cultivators within the area of the castle's power were evicted 
one after another if they did not become the tenants of 
the Norman lord or were not slain in the ceaseless petty 
warfare that resulted from the efforts of the Norman lord 
to feed his garrison. It is not difficult, therefore, to under- 
stand the position of the Welsh chieftain. Sometimes he 
retook the castle and the adjacent lands, and for a brief 
period again enjoyed his accustomed rights. But whatever 
were the vicissitudes of the particular case, the Welsh 
chieftains long maintained their old tribal and customary 
rights, and did not, except as the result of generations of 
conflict, in the course of which many of them forfeited their 
lives, acquiesce in the counter-theory of the Norman lords. 
Turning now to the side of the invader, we find a distinct 
order of ideas. We need not stop to inquire whether the 
theory which is a first principle of English land tenure is 
founded upon a solid fact when it is represented as springing 
from the recognition of the right of William the Conqueror 
to be the paramount lord of all land in the island at the 
assembly in which the chief English vassals and tenants 
swore fealty to the new monarch. Tradition hands down 
the story that after the great survey had been made the 
Conqueror summoned all the witan and landowners of 
England to meet him at Salisbury, and that the men 
assembled at this great meeting numbered 60,000, and 
that they one and all, " whose men soever they were, all 
bowed down to him and were his men, and swore to him 
faithful oaths that they would be faithful to him against all 
other men."^ Whether this is true or not, it has been the 
undoubted principle of English law ever since, that all 
land is held either of the king or of some one who holds 
land immediately or mediately from the sovereign.- 

' Freeman, " Norman Conquest," vol. iv. , p. 693. 

- " Every acre of English soil and every property right therein have been 



268 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

Now when the Norman adventurer, acting with more 
or less cognisance on the part of his Norman sovereign, 
endeavoured to carry the conquest beyond the bounds of 
the English kingdom, he did so actuated very largely with 
the object of personal gain, but he did so under the influence 
of ideas which found a practical expression in the celebrated 
meeting at Salisbury. It is commonly assumed that in 
times in which human life was little regarded, and which 
appear to be times of mere violence, men knew no law 
except the law of the strongest. No greater blunder can 
be made than that which is involved in such an assump- 
tion. One of the remarkable things about the history of 
Europe at the close of the Dark Ages, and at the commence- 
ment of the mediaeval period, is the immense influence of 
law and custom, and the most rapacious Norman adven- 
turer, whatever his private vices and the turbulence of his 
disposition, never seems to have acted without endeavouring 
at least to do so under the colour of a legal right and 
a legal title. The theory which the conquerors of Wales 
adopted, the theory according to which the man who, 
following the Welsh view, was an atit ud diCt^d was this — that 
he was carrying out the commands of his sovereign, and 
that his title to any land that he won with his sword was 
his either by the express or the implied grant of the Norman 
king of England. 

One other observation before leaving this part of the 
subject ought to be made. As the settlement of the Norman 
lords gradually became more fixed and permanent, the 
hostility between them and such of the Welsh princes or 
lords as retained any cantrefs or cymwds became modified 
in a sensible and continually increasing degree ; and it was 
not unusual to find Norman lord and Welsh lord combining 

l)rought within the compass of a single formula which may be expressed thus : — 
Z tenet terra?)! illam Je . . . domino rege.'^ Pollock and Maitland, " Hist, 
of English Law,'" i. 210. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 269 

for military purposes against some other chieftain of either 
race, while intermarriage between members of the Norman 
families and those of the more important and powerful 
Welsh cenedloed became, in the course of time, not infre- 
quent. Probably, though this approximation between 
the rulers of the country became very marked by the 
middle of the thirteenth century, it must not be assumed 
that, speaking broadly, there was any such rapprochement 
among the lower orders. The small Welsh tenants, the 
servile occupiers of the land, the Welsh bards, and the 
Welsh-speaking clergy, continued to entertain racial preju- 
dices and to advance national claims quite regardless of the 
interests and intrigues of the princely families. 

Such appears to us to have been the general course of 
events that led to the final subjugation of Wales by Edward 
the First. The Welsh naturally regarded the overthrow 
of their enemy Harold as a matter of congratulation ; but 
they soon found that their position was not improved by 
the Norman Conquest. Bledyn and Rhiwatton, who had 
received the possessions of Grufifyd ab Lewelyn, combined 
with Eadric the Wild, who was in possession of lands in 
Herefordshire and Shropshire, and had refused to submit 
to the new king. The allies laid waste the former county, 
though they did not take the town and fortress of Hereford, 
which were in Norman hands. ^ Almost immediately, 
however, there was internal war in Wales. Maredud and 
Ithel (or Idwal), sons of Gruffyd" ab Lewelyn, assailed the 
chieftains whom Harold had invested. The forces of the 
rival families met at Mechain. Ithel was killed in the 
battle ; Maredud fled and died of cold ; Rhiwatlon, too, 
fell. Bledyn held his own, and reigned alone over Powys, 
and probably over the greater part of Gwyned ; but we 
find that one Maredud ab Owain ab Edwyn now held 
Deheubarth — a fact which indicates that there had been 

^ Freeman, N. C, iv. no, in. " Flor. Wig." and " Chron. Wig." 1067. 



270 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

some partition of the great possessions of Gruffyd ab 
Lewelyn.^ It is clear that the friendly feelings between 
the Welsh and the Mercians shown by the durable alliance 
between them in the great days of Gruffyd still existed, 
and Bledyn joined in the abortive revolt of Eadwyne and 
Morkere.- 

After the submission of these earls to William we hear 
of no further efforts of Bledyn against the king, but 
during the next few years Normans, on one pretext or 
another, are found raiding in the south. In 1070 the 
Maredud ab Owain who had assumed, as we have seen, 
the chieftaincy of Deheubarth, was attacked by Caradog 
ab Gruff\'d ab Rhyderch.-^ The latter, with the aid of the 
French (so the Normans are called in the " Brut "), defeated 
and slew the former in a fight on the banks of the Rymney, 
and probably obtained a hold on some part of the south- 
eastern district. In the next year we find the Normans 
ravaging Dyfed and Keredigion, and in 1072 they devastated 
the latter principality a second time. Probably these raids 
were made in conjunction with the Caradog ab Owain who 
had claims to Deheubarth, and who fought a battle in 1073 
with Rh}'s ab Owain, who, as we gather, was his brother. 
The state of things in that kingdom (if we may still use 
the word), as well as in Dyfed and Morganwg, is very 
obscure, but there can be no doubt that the continual 
feuds in which the princel}' families of the south con- 
tinued to indulge were among the main causes of the 
rapid conquest of that part of Cymru a few years later. 
In the significant fact that this Caradog ab Owain (following 
a generally fatal precedent) sought the help of strangers — 

' "Brut,"j.«. 1068. "Ann. Camb. '" io68. 

- Ofd. Vit. 51 IP. 

•' " Brut," s.a. 1070. This Caradog was apparently the son of the Gruffyd 
ab Rhyderch slain by Gruffyft ab Levvelyn (above, p. 168). If so, he was 
the man who destroyed Harold's hunting-seat at Porth Iscoed (Yscewin, 
Portskewet). 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 271 

" Freinc," in the " Brut " — in an internal dispute/ we may 
see a further explanation of the ease with which the new- 
comers established themselves at many important points 
in South Wales before the end of the eleventh century. 

Rhys ab Owain, with one Rhyderch ab Caradog, not- 
withstanding the efforts of Caradog ab Owain, maintained 
themselves in Deheubarth. From the time of the sub- 
mission of Eadwyn and Morkere, Bledyn had remained in 
effective possession of Powys, and probably of a considerable 
part of Gwyned, and he is regarded by the chronicler as 
the man who after Gruffyd his brother " nobly supported 
the whole kingdom of the Britons," " the gentlest and 
most merciful of kings," " a defence to every one." ^ But 
his reign was not long, for in 1073 he was killed, under 
circumstances of which no information is given in detail, 
by Rhys ab Owain, " through the deceit of evil-minded 
chieftains and of the noblemen of Ystrad Tywi."'^ He 
was succeeded in Gwyned by a cousin, Trahaiarn ab 
Caradog.* We may presume, from what we know of the 
subsequent history of Powys, that the cenedl of Bledyn 
remained in possession there. 

The death of Bledyn strengthened the position of 
Rhys ab Owain in Deheubarth. Acting jointly with 
Rhyderch ab Caradog, he put down in the same year 
a rising led by Goronwy and Lewelyn ab Cadwgan,-^ and 
was able, after the murder of Rhyderch in 1074, to defeat 
them again in, 1075. But in the next year Trahaiarn 

1 "Brut," s.(7. 1070. 

- " Brut," s.a. 1073 and 1076. 

^ " Brut," s.a. 1076. We have heard of similar conduct on the part of the 
" uchelwyr of Ystrad Tywi " before (above, pp. 161, 168). 

■* BleSyn left sons, among whom Cadwgan, lorwerth, and Maredud came to 
the front. There is no explanation of the succession of Trahaiarn, except that 
he was chosen from among "near relations," unless it was simply a case of 
coming in "by the strong hand " ; see p. 203, n. 3, above. Nothing is said in the 
" Brut " as to Traliaiarn's relation to Powys. 

" The bailie took place at " Kamdwr." " Brut," s.a. 1073. 



272 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

(who was then for the moment firmly in possession of the 
north) attacked Rhys ab Ovvain, and by decisively defeat- 
ing him at the battle of Pwtt Gwdyc avenged the blood 
of Bledyn. There all the family of Rhys fell ; he himself 
fled " like a timid stag before the hounds through the 
thickets and rocks," only, however, to die before the end of 
the year by the hand of Gruffycf ab Caradog. Upon the 
overthrow of this Rhys, his kinsman Rhys ab Tewdwr, a 
lineal descendant of Rhodri Mawr, succeeded to Deheubarth 
without any opposition of which evidence is handed down, 
and for about fourteen years was the lending chieftain in 
the south, though as events turned out he was the last man 
who can really be regarded as king or prince of the ancient 
kingdom of Deheubarth. 

Gwyned, though Trahaiarn's sway was at this time seem- 
ingly acquiesced in, had not been wholly free from internal 
trouble. Cynan, the son of lago and grandson of Idwal, 
who came of the direct line of Rhodri, years before had 
taken refuge in Ireland. He married Raguell (daughter of 
Auleod, an Irish king), who became the mother of Gruffycf, 
born about 1055. On the death of Bledyn, with the aid 
of his Irish kinsmen, Gruffyd ab Cynan made a descent 
on Mon, and effected some kind of settlement in the 
island. This, according to the " Brut," was in the year 
1073, ^n<^ I'^c immediately crossed over to the mainland, 
attacking Trahaiarn at Bron yr Erw, in the cantref of 
Dunodig. Grufifyd retreated to Mon, where he and his 
followers for a time remained. At this time, as we 
have seen, Rhys ab Tewdwr was ruling in Deheubarth. 
He allied himself to the cause of Gruffyd (who had in 
the meantime received reinforcements from Ireland) ; the 
allies attacked Trahaiarn, and ultimately a battle was 
fought at Mynyd Carn between the two princes and the 
king of Gwyned, in which the latter was defeated and slain.' 
' "Brut,"j.a. 1079. For the life of ( iruffytt ab Cynan s-ee " Diet. Na 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066—1282. 273 

Thus once more we find two princes lineally descended 
from Rhodri Mawr ruling respectively over Gwyned" and 
Deheubarth. Gruffyd was more fortunate than Rhys, and 
though the earlier years of his reign were far from being 
prosperous, by prudent conduct he succeeded in maintain- 
ing his rule and died peacefully, as we shall see, in what 
was for those troublous times extreme old age. 

William the Conqueror in 1080 or 1081 made an expedi- 
tion into Wales, by which, according to some, he subdued 
the country.^ He and his army penetrated as far as Saint 
Davids, but since we find Rhys ab Tewdwr still reigning 
afterwards, the campaign can have had no great practical 
result, though it marks a stage in the conquest of South 
Wales, especially as with it seems to have been closely 
associated the foundation of a castle at Cardiff- The 
Welsh chronicles represent that William, king of the French, 
Saxons, and Britons, came for prayer on a pilgrimage to 
Menevia ; but it is clear from other sources and from subse- 
quent events that his journey through the south was made 
with political intent and had political consequences.'^ 

During the next few years no events of importance 
happened in Wales itself, but in 1087 William the 
Conqueror died, and we may stop for a moment to see 
how far his rule of twenty-one years had in fact altered 
the relations of England and Cymru. We will state what 
we can gather from trustworthy sources quite simply. 
William founded two palatine earldoms that directly 

Eiog." s.n. As to tlie situation of Mynyft Cam, see " Y Cymmrodor," xi., 
p. 167. It must not be confounded with Carno in Montgomeryshire or the 
Carno near Crickhowell. The best opinion locates it in South Cardiganshire. 

' Chron. Petr., loSi. R. Wendover, ii. 20. Freeman, N. C.,iv. 675-7) 
and his valuable notes. 

- " Brut," s.a. 1080. 

^ " Brut," s.a. 1079 (this date is wrong) says : " Y deuth Gwilim vastard 
vrenhin y Saeson ar Freinc ar Brytanyeit wrth wediaw drwy berenindawt y 
Vynyw." " Ann. Canib." (1079) simply record : "William Rex Anglite causa 
orationis Sanctum David adiit." 

W.P. T 



274 ^^^ WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

concerned Wales — those of Chester and Shrewsbur)-^ — and 
quickl)' made Worcester, Hereford, and Gloucester impor- 
tant military stations for operations in the west. William 
entered Chester (restored as we have seen by Saxon 
rulers) in 1070, and founded a new castle, the custod)' of 
which he entrusted to his stepson Gerbod.- 

Shrewsbury (the Welsh Amwythig) had long been in 
English possession, but we do not know when first it was 
seized by the Normans. It must, however have been in 
their power before 1069, for in that }'ear it was besieged 
and burnt by Eadric with the assistance of men from man}' 
quarters, noticeably from the regions of Chester, Gwyned, 
and Powys.'^ 

The date of the conquest of Worcester is not known, but 
Urse of Abetot held the city and shire for the king as 
early as 1068 or 1069.* 

A Norman colony had been planted in the region of 
Hereford in the time of Eadward the Confessor. It is not 
clear when the castle was built, but Osbern the sheriff 
defended the city and the adjoining lands against the 
attacks of Eadric the Wild immediately after the Conquest, 
and in 1070 William Fitz-Osbern was appointed Earl of 
Herefordshire." 

The year of the conquest of Gloucestershire is uncertain, 
but it was probably occupied by the Normans and the 
building of a castle commenced in 1068 or the following 
year. It did not become an earldom at once, but later on 
Henry I. conferred the county on his son Robert." 

At the time then of William's death the Welsh were 

' Counties palatine differed from otiier counties in that the earls thereof 
had certain royal privileges and prerogatives. 
- Freeman, N. C, iv. 309-316. 
^ /l>u/. iv. 272-278. 
■* y/'u/. iv. 173-4. 
'" Ibid. iv. 64. 
^ Ibid. iv. 173. Wm. R., ii. p. 89. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066—1282. 275 

hemmed in and checked by the forces of the counties 
palatine of Chester and Shrewsbury, by the Earls of 
Worcester and Hereford, and by the Normans forming the 
garrison of Gloucester. The English frontier had, before 
the Conquest, been considerably advanced. At Rhudlan, 
which, it will be recollected, had been one of the seats of 
Gruffyd ab Lewelyn and burnt by Harold, a castle had 
been built from which Robert of Rhudlan (under the Earl 
of Chester) waged continuous warfare with the Welsh. ^ 
Similarly a fortress had been erected on a height which 
came to be called Montgomery among the English, after 
the name of Earl Roger of that place, and Tre Faldwin 
among the Welsh.- Some part of what is now Radnor- 
shire had passed into Harold's possession, and was still 
English or Norman land. The king held the castle of 
Monmouth. Cardiff Castle was either completed or in 
course of erection, and the better opinion is that the lands 
between the Wye and the Usk had for some time been in 
English hands. '^ 

It is evident that during the greater part of William's 
reign Wales was in a state of extreme disorder. There 
was continual internal and border warfare. The fights 
(they can hardly be called wars) between the princely 
kindreds were incessant, and were repeated on a still 
smaller scale between the uchelwyr occupying adjacent 
lands. Quarrels were continually taking place on the 
border between the Welsh and the Norman earls, and the 
latter were of course quite ready to make temporary 
alHances with those of the Cymric chieftains who sought 
their assistance. 

1 Freeman, N. C, iv. 489-90. "Ord. Vit.," 670. "Domesday," 269. 

2 Mid. iv. 501. "Ann. Camb." 1072: " De Muntgumeri Hugo vastavit 
Keredigium." The land around the site of the castle seems to have been 
held by Englishmen as a hunting-ground in Eadward the Confessor's time. 
" Domesday;" 254. 

' Freeman, N. C., ii. 708, et se^. 

T 2 



276 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

Such was the position of things when WilHam Rufus 
succeeded his father. The following year (1088) was 
marked by a rebellion in which the Norman conquerors 
took different sides, and the Cymric chieftains to some 
extent profited by the opportunity thus afforded.^ Earl 
Hugh of Chester and Robert of Rhudlan were in opposite 
camps, and while Robert was assisting at the siege of 
Rochester, Gruffyd ab Cynan seized the occasion to invade 
his territory. The Welsh king, with Irish allies, advanced 
as far as Rhudlan itself, and slew many men and carried 
off many captives. Robert soon returned, however, and 
we hear of his being at Deganwy, an old British strong- 
hold at the mouth of the river Conway, traditionally 
supposed to have been the seat of Maelgwn. It now seems 
to have been an advance post of the Earl of Chester, and 
a castle of .some kind had been already erected by Robert. 
While the Norman chief was at this fortress Gruffyd with 
three ships entered the Conway, and, daring even in the 
very presence of Robert to raid the adjacent territor}', 
carried off prisoners and cattle to his ves.sels. Robert in 
anger, and taken by surprise, bade his men, who were 
evidently few in number, to follow him ; he himself, 
attended by only one knight, rushed to the shore of the 
river. He was immediately surrounded by the enemy and 
borne down by darts and arrows. His head was smitten 
off and placed as a trophy on the mast of one of the ships ; 
but Gruffyd ordered it to be taken down and thrown into 
the .sea, and then escaped with his booty.- 

About the time when this considerable success was 
being obtained by Gruffyd trouble was taking place in the 
south. Three sons of Bledyn (Madog, Cadwgan, and 
Rhirid), who, as we gather, were among the joint rulers of 

' For an account of this rebellion see Freeman, VVni. R., i. 22, e( se<j. 
• The story comes from "Ord. Vit.," and is fully told by Freeman. See 
Wm. R., i. 124-7. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 277 

Powys, expelled Rhys ab Tewdwr from Deheubarth. Rhys 
escaped to Ireland, and immediately collecting " a fleet of 
the Gwydyl," returned and landed. He gave battle to the 
sons of Bledyn at a place called Lych Crei. Madog and 
Rhirid were killed, but Cadwgan survived to take an 
important part in Welsh affairs for many years. Rhys 
was evidently a wealthy chieftain, for the gifts he gave to 
his Irish mercenaries were so large as to attract special 
attention. His victory, as far as the cenedl of Bled^yn was 
concerned, was decisive, but he was assailed by others, and 
his failure to keep peace in the south, though he main- 
tained a predominant position for some time, was one of 
the causes which made the conquest of South Wales easy 
and rapid.^ 

Soon after the overthow of the sons of Bledyn a forward 
movement on a large scale was made by the Normans in 
central and south Wales which speedily resulted in the 
occupation of very large areas by Norman adventurers, and 
in the disappearance as real entities of Deheubarth and the 
kingdoms or principalities of south-eastern Wales. For 
the sake of clearness we must separate the conquests of 
Morgannwg, Brecheiniog, and Dyfed, though they seem to 
have been very nearly simultaneous, and it is likely that the 
movements which resulted in these events were more or 
less concerted. Whether this is so or not, Rhys ab Tewdwr 
was killed by the Normans in 1093 i^ ^^ engagement at a 
place not particularly stated in the Chronicles somewhere 
near the borders of the present Brecknockshire.- 

' For these events, see " Brut," s.a. 1087 (really 1088). As to Rhys' gifts 
the entry is: ''Ac y rodes Rhys ab Tewdwr diruawr swttt yr ttygheswyr 
yscotteit ar GwyJlyl a deuthant yn borth idaw." According to tlie "Brut" 
(S.a. 1089), Lewelyn ab Cedivor, who, as we think, was of the line of Dyfed, 
with the Gruffyd ab Maredutt of whom we have already heard, fought with 
Rhys ab Tewdwr near Landydoch. Lewelyn was slain ; "Brnt," s.a. 1089. 
The true date of Rhys' victory is probably 1091. Freeman suggests that 
Cedivor was a vassal prince of Dyfed under Rhys. Wm. R., ii. 78. 

" "Brut,"^.a:. 1091, "Ann. Cam." 1093. 



278 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

MoreannvvfT in earlier times seems to have been the name 
of a very large district, but the Morgannwg of the tenth and 
eleventh centuries was much smaller. It roughly corre- 
sponded to the present count)- without Gower on the west, 
but with the present shire of Monmouth up to the Usk 
included. The northern boundary cannot be determined. 
We have seen that a king called Morgan Hen had ruled in 
this part of the countr}' in the tenth centurx', and had had 
a dispute with Howel Da which was decided by an English 
king in favour of the former. Perhaps it was from his 
time that the place - name Gwlad Morgan (land of 
Morgan), which survives in Glamorgan, came into vogue. 
There was, however, a clear distinction between Morgannwg 
and Glamorgan, and long after it was reflected in the style 
assumed by the chief lords of the south-east of Wale.s — of 
lords of " Morgania et Glamorgania." No authentic record 
pre.serves for us the line of Morgan Hen, but at the time at 
which we have now arrived one lestyn ab Gwrgan emerges 
as a ruler of Morgannwg, and perhaps of Gwent — no doubt 
the smaller Morgannwg and a sadly-curtailed Gwent. It was 
while he was reigning, if we ma)' use the term, that the 
greater part of the tract of territor)' between the Usk and 
the Neath passed into Norman hands. As to the way in 
which this came about we have no information from really 
trustworthy sources ; but there is no doubt that by the end 
of 1093 it had happened, and that Robert Fitz-Hamon, 
a trusted companion of the Conqueror, was the man who 
brought it about. Neither in the " Brut " nor in the 
" Annales Cambria; " is there any reference to the conquest 
of Glamorgan ; but in the so-called Gwentian "Brut" and 
in Caradog's Histor)' the stor)' of the conquest is given 
with some pomp and circumstance. 

We must tell Caradog's story in an abridged form. 
According to him, Lewelyn and Eineon, sons of Cedivor 
of Dyfed, were defeated by Rhys ab Tewdwr at Landy- 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066—1282. 279 

doch. Eineon fled to lestyn, lord of Morgannwg, who 
also was at feud with Rhys. lestyn promised his daughter 
in marriage to Eineon, who had served in England 
before, and undertook to bring an army of Normans 
to assist lestyn in his quarrel with Rhys. Eineon 
thereupon prevailed upon Robert Fitz-Hamon and twelve 
knights to come into Morgannwg. A great army of 
Normans was gathered together, and shortly afterwards 
landed in Glamorgan. Joining forces with lestyn, Robert 
burnt and spoilt the land of Rhys and his people. Rhys 
gathered his power and met the allies not far from Brecon. 
There was a terrible battle ; Rhys was slain, and with him 
" decaied the kingdom of South Wales." The Normans, 
after receiving " their promised salarie and great rewards " 
from lestyn, returned to their ships. Eineon then demanded 
lestyn's daughter, but was " laughed to scorne," and told 
that the daughter would be bestowed otherwise. Full of 
anger, Eineon followed the Normans and found them all 
a-shipboard. Going to the chiefest of them, he showed his 
grievance, and how easy it would be for them to conquer 
the land. Easily persuaded, they returned, despoiled 
lestyn of his country, took "the fertile and valley" land to 
themselves, and awarded to Eineon the " barren and rough 
mountain." The knights that accompanied Robert were : 
Londres or London (" as the Brytish booke nameth him "), 
Stradlyng, St. John, Turberville, Grenuile, Humffreuile, 
S. Quintine, Soore, Sully, Berkeroll, Syward, and Fleming. 
Caradog adds " that these men and their heires have 
enjoyed that countrie to this dale, who were the first 
strangers that ever inhabited Wales since the time of 
Camber."^ 

Another version of the story is interpolated by Dr. Powel 
in the 1584 edition of Caradog's History. It is headed 
" Of the winning of the Lordship of Glamorgan or 

1 "Caradog " (1584 ed.), 1 19-122. 



28o THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

Morgannwc." Powell gives the tract from a manuscript 
delivered to him by Mistress Blanch Parry (" one of the 
gentlewomen of the Ouaenes Majesties Privie Chamber, a 
singular well-wisher and furtherer of the weale public of 
that countrie "), and which had been " set in writing by 
some skilful and studious gentleman of that countrie." ^ 
The account in this tract does not materially differ from 
that in the main text, though a more definitely chivalrous 
complexion is given to the transaction. 

It is evident that this story cannot be accepted with all 
its detail, but there is no reason for rejecting it altogether.- 
Robert P'itz-Hamon undoubtedly conquered Glamorgan.-' 
lestyn ab Gwrgan was lord of the whole or part of 
Morgannwg. "^ Some of the knights mentioned did settle in 
the county. We may take it as certain that Morgannwg 
was occupied about 1091 to 1093, though the exact date (no 
chronicle gives us information on the point) cannot be 
fixed. It is likely enough that the event was connected 
with the overthrow of Rhys ab Tewdwr in 1093, t)ut the 
" Brut " ascribes his death to the " French who inhabited 
Brecheiniog." ■' This looks as if when Rhys' last battle was 
fought the conquest of Brecheiniog had taken place or was 
proceeding, and as if he were trying to oust the Normans, 
and not engaging in civil war with lestyn, but tljere can be 
no certainty on the matter. It is not, however, probable 

' "Caradog," 124, cl se(]. 

- This is Freeman's view. Wm. R., ii. 8i. 

=' He was on tiie side of William Rufus in the rebellion He had great 
possessit)ns in tiloucestershire and Somersetshire. His daughter Mabel 
became wife of Robert, Earl of Cdoucester, son of Henry I. " Diet. Nat. 
Biog.," suh nom., and Freeman, Wm. R., ii., 83. 

^ See Giraldus, " Itin. Camb.," i. 7 : " Quatuor Caradoci fdii leslini tiiiiis, et 
Resi principis ex sorore nepotdxis, his in finibiis herili portione, sicut Gualen- 
sibus mos est, pro patre dominantibus, Morgano videlicet, et Mereducio, 
Oeneo, Cadwallano." The children of lestyn held Aberafan (Aberavon) after 
the Con(|uest. Freeman, Wm. R., ii. 87. 

'" " Brut," .?.«. 1091, prol>ably in truth 1093. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 281 

that the conquest of Morgannwg was so sudden an affair as 
the story represents. The building of Cardiff Castle, if we 
may trust the " Brut," had begun some ten years before, 
and the conquest by the Normans was gradual, though no 
doubt in the Vale their settlement went on rapidly. It is 
to be noticed that the number of castles, and therefore of 
lordships, manors, or sub-manors, in Glamorganshire is 
proportionally very large, and as the evidence the Land 
Commission received shows the district was strictly 
organised on feudal principles, and suggests some former 
intentional and definite apportionment, it indirectly tends 
to support the substantial accuracy of the story of the 
conquest of Glamorgan.^ 

Brecheiniog also speedily passed into Norman hands. It 
was probably in the early years of Rufus' reign that Bernard 
de Neufmarche or Newmarch seized a central position in 
that region and built a castle at Aberhondu. He married 
(we know not the date) Nest, who was the daughter of 
Gruffyd ab Lewelyn by Ealdgyth, and therefore the step- 
daughter of King Harold. It was probably in fighting 
against him that Rhys ab Tewdwr was slain.- The defeat 
of the Welsh king took place early in the year. Cadwgan 
ab Bledyn, the same who had survived the defeat at Lych 

' E.g., the Duke of Beaufort is lord of the seigniory of Gower. In this 
area (182 square miles) there are a number of mesne manors, and besides these 
fees or sub-manors, the lords of which hold of the lords of the mesne manors. 
The Duke holds of himself, as lord of Gower, the mesne manors of Swansea, 
Oystermouth, Loughor, Kilvey, Gower Wallicana, Gower Anglicana ; while 
he holds the fee of Trewytlfa of the lord of the mesne manor of Pennard held 
of the Duke himself. See Mr. Glynn Price's evidence, qq. 6425, et seq. ; 
6626 — 6630. The contrast between this state of things and that which exists 
in Gwvnert, where there are comparatively few manors (except, of course, the 
Crown lordships formed by treating the cymwds on the conquest as equivalent 
to lordships), is very marked. 

' Bernard first married a daughter of Osbern of Hereford, settled there, and 
established a stronghold at Aberhonftu (Brecon). The dates of his birth 
and death are not known. "Diet. Nat. B'lng.," sul' noin.; and Giraldus, 
" Itin. Camb." i. 2. 



282 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

Crei, and who now begins to play a considerable part in the 
affairs of Wales, immediately despoiled Dyfed, and two. 
months afterwards we find the Normans invaded both Dyfed 
and Keredigion, which, says the chronicler, "they have still 
retained." ^ The)' fortified the castles, and seized " all the 
lands of the Britons." This conquest was effected by Arnulf 
of Montgomery, and he immediately caused some kind of 
castle to be erected at Pembro (later Pembroke), and 
confided the defence of it to Gerald of Windsor." It is 
to be noted, however, that at this time (1093-4) Gower, 
Kidweli, and most of the territory between the Neath and 
the Towi had not yet been occupied by the invaders. 

The events in the north during the time the conquests 
we have described were taking place cannot be sureh' or 
clearly stated. The death of Robert of Rhudlan had onh' 
a momentar}' effect, and Rhudlan and Deganwy continued 
to be firmly held by Hugh of Chester or his subordinate 
officers, and he probably controlled the whole of the coast- 
line to the Menai Straits. Earl Roger of Shrewsbury had 
not been idle, and was strengthening his hold on Powys, 
and by the king's command a castle had been raised at 
Rhyd y Gors.^ 

' Eliys' son GruffyCt possessed only " one cymwd, namely, the fourth part of 
the cantrcf of Caeoc, in the cantref Mawr, which in title and dignity was 
esteemed by the Welsh equal to the southern part of Wales called Deheubarth, 
that is, the right-hand side of Wales." Ciiraldus, " Itin. Camb." i. 2. Caeoc is 
a mistake for Caeo, which was a cymwd in cantref Bychan, not cantref Mawr. 
Giraldus remarks thit though Gruft'yd's "inheritance was diminished, his 
ambition and dignity remained." It is in this connection he tells the 
\\ell-known story of the Welsh prince's proclamation by the birds of the lake 
of Hrecheiniog. 

- The words of the "Brut" seem to indicate that some castles already 
existed — they are: "Ac y gadarnhayssant y kestytt." In modern Wel.sh 
cailharuhau means "to strengthen," and cfl.v/tTV is used as equivalent to "castle."' 
" Ann. Camb." say "circiter kalendas Julii Franci primitus Uemetiam et Kere- 
digion tenuerunt. et abinde totam terram Britonum occupaverunt." Pembroke 
is mentioned in the " Brut," s.a. 1092, as holding out against Cadwgan ab 
Bledyn. 

■* " Brut," s.a. 1092 (probably in truth later). 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 283 

In Gwyned we may presume that GruffyS ab Cynan was 
still the recognised ruler, but we have no mention of him in 
the " Brut " after 1073 till the year 1096, and in the stirring 
events of the next two years it is Cadwgan ab Bled}ai 
who comes to the front as the chief leader of the Cymric 
nation.'^ 

The year 1094 is celebrated in Welsh annals for a general 
attempt to shake oft the Norman yoke. Cadwgan, it may 
be fairly conjectured, effected some temporary combination 
among the Welsh chieftains.- There certainly was a 
widespread rising. The Welsh, unable to bear the cruelty 
of the Normans, began the movement under the leadership 
of Cadwgan by an attack on the newly-made castles in 
Gwyned" and Mon, which resulted in their destruction or 
capture.'^ The "French" made a fresh expedition into 
Gwyned, but were defeated, according to the " Brut," in the 
wood of Yspwys. Cadwgan and his allies, taking the 
offensive, ravaged Chester, Shropshire, and even Hereford- 
shire ; they burnt towns, slew many men, and carried off 
much booty.* Having as they deemed freed Gwyned, 
the Welsh chieftains marched south into Keredigion and 
Dyfed. They demolished all the fortresses except two. 
Pembroke held out under Gerald of Windsor, and William 
son of Baldwin succeeded in retaining Rhyd y Gors.'' 
Cadwgan, it is said in the " Brut," " the people and all the 

^ He is mentioned in the epitaph of Robert of RhucHan that is given in 
" Ord. Vit. Hist. Eccles. '' : " cepit Grithfriduni regem.'' Gruftyct was at 
large in 1087, for he led in that year a raid against Robert (see alcove, p. 276), 
in which the latter was killed. GruffycT's captivity must therefore have ended 
before that event. 

- See " Eng. Chton.," s.a. 1097 : "They (the Welsh) cl ose them many 
elders of themselves ; one was Cadwgan hight that of them worthiist was : 
he was brother's son of Grufyft the king." (" Chron. Petrib.") 

■* " Brut," J. a. 1092. See " flor. Wig.," 1094: " fregerunt ct castellum 
in Meoania insula." 

■* " Flor. Wig.," 1094. 

■' " Brut," s.a. 1092. 



284 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

cattle of Dyfed brought away, leaving Dyfed and Keredigion 
a desert."^ This statement must be taken with some 
qualification, but we may believe that there was a consider- 
able migration of the scanty population of those districts to 
the safer and more mountainous regions of the northern 
and central parts of the country ; but in after times North 
Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire are found to be, and still 
remain, Welsh-speaking areas. For the moment the work 
of the Norman adventurers seemed to be undone ; but in 
the very next year (1095), while ^^e Cymry of the north 
were still in possession of the lands they had reconquered, 
the Normans of Morgannwg made a fresh advance to the west 
and overran Gower, Kidweli, and Ystrad Towi, into which 
they had not, except perhaps sporadically, up to that time 
penetrated. William of London settled at Kidweli, and 
commenced building a strong castle." Within the ne.xt 
few years castles also arose at Abertawe (Swansea), 
Aberttwchwr (Loughor), Oystermouth, Penrice, and Lan- 
rhidian in Gower. 

In the same year (1095) ^^^^ Cymry of Powys, with 
probably the men of Gwyned, were fighting in the valley of 
the Severn, and suddenly achieved a success which, however, 
led to their undoing. They took the important castle of Tre 
Faldwin, and killed its garrison.-^ Matters now became 
sufficiently serious to demand the personal attention of 
William Rufus himself. Much disturbed, he called out the 
fyrd of his English kingdom, and made an expedition into 
Wales."* Crossing the border soon after Michaelmas, and 
dividing his force into parties, he is said to have marched 
through Wales. The C)'mr)', folU^wing their usual tactics, 

' " Brut," ,f.(7. 1092; "Ann. Caml)r.," s.a. 1095: " Demetin et Caretica 
et .Stiatewi deserta manent. " 

- So says the Gwentian " Brut," s.a. 1094. 

^ By this time Hugh son of Roger had succeeded his father in the earldom 
of Shrewsbury. 

^ " Chron Petrib. ," 1095. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 285 

avoided a pitched battle ; they took to the " moors and dales " 
and "the fastnesses in the woods and glens." ^ Ultimately 
the Norman parties reunited somewhere near Snowdon, 
and, finding winter approaching, William ordered a retreat, 
and he and his army returned home " empty without having 
gained anything."- In the next year, 1096, probably 
encouraged by the ill-success of William's expedition, the 
Cymry of Brecheiniog, Gwent, and Gwenttwg " resisted the 
domination " and "threw ofif the yoke of the French."^ 
The tide of Welsh success rose yet higher. Some time in the 
same year William son of Baldwin, the founder of the castle 
of Rhyd y Gors, died. Till now, under his personal direction 
or that of his officers, this castle had held out against all the 
efforts of the Welsh ; but no sooner had he died than its 
garrison deserted, leaving the fortress empty and open to 
the enemy. Following up this fresh success, Uchtrud ab 
Edwin and Howel ab Goronwy, with many chieftains of the 
cenedl of Cadwgan, marched again against Pembroke. 
They failed to take the castle, but they despoiled its territory 
of its cattle, ravaged the whole country, and with immense 
booty returned home.^ 

At the same time there was fighting in the lands between 
the Usk and the Wye, and between the Usk and the 
Rymney, though how far there was any concert between 
the chieftains of the south-east and of the north we cannot 
say. The result was evidently for the moment favourable 
to the Welsh, and made the positions of the Normans in 
those parts dangerous. For we read that the French 
(operating we know not from where) sent an army into 
Gwent, but, like the forces of William, empty and without 

' " Brut," i-.a. 1093. "Ann. Cambr.," 1095. 

^ "Brut," s.a. 1093. "Ann. Camb.," j.a. 1095: "vacuus ad sua rediit." 
^ " Brut," J. a. 1094. " Ann. Camb.," j-.a. 1096. 

■* /b/d. Giraldus ("Itin. Cambr.," i. 1 2) gives some stories about this siege. 
His dates are wrong. See Freeman, Wm. K., ii. 109, note. 



286 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

havin^T gained anything they were obHged to retreat. Less 
fortunate than the forces of the king, on the return march 
they were cut off and defeated at Kelli Carnant. Soon 
after a larger force, raised with a view of crushing the whole 
of the crjuntry, sustained a like fate, being defeated at 
Aberttech b\' the sons of Idnerth ab Cadwgan.^ So far 
the success of the Cymry in the rebellion had been 
singularly great ; but early in 1097 Gerald of Windsor 
took the offensive, and ravaged the land of D}'fed up to 
the boundaries of the church of St. David. Once more 
William Rufus determined to go to the aid of his vassals 
in the west. Gathering an arm}-, soon after Easter he 
entered Wales ; led by native guides, he penetrated far into 
the countr}', but with no practical result, though some of the 
Cymric lords made formal submission. He returned to 
England for the Whitsuntide festival, but before Midsummer 
he again set forth with an army of cavalry and foot soldiers, 
and for the third time entered and proceeded far into 
Wales. He remained there for several weeks. To the 
Welsh chiefs this new host seemed invincible ; following 
their usual practice, they avoided any engagement. Great 
though was the number of the Norman host, the\' were not 
able, or else did not dare, to seek out their enemies in the 
mountains and forests to which they prudenth' retreated, 
and, to use the words of the Welsh chronicler, they only 
"skulked about the level plains." According to the "Brut," 
the Welshmen, evidently conscious of their weakness in 
numbers, not confiding in themselves, " placed their hope in 
God, the Creator of all things, b}- fasting and praying and 
giving alms and undergoing severe bodily penance." Though 
we know that the Cymr}- were religious enough upon occasion, 
yet, reading between the lines of the English and Welsh 
sources of information, it is not unreasonable to infer from 
all this that the clergy were in league with Cadwgan and 

' " Brut,'' j-.(;. 1094. "Ann. Camb.," ,f.^. 1096. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 287 

were properly rewarded, and probably also that the "native 
guides" led the invincible host along the ways wh'ch the 
Cymric leaders desired them to go. Anyhow, William's 
third campaign ended like the others : he lost much in 
men and horses, and "eke in other things," and returned some 
time in August. William's three campaigns were failures ; 
he and his commanders had not learned what experience 
had taught Harold.^ Cavalry — especially knights in armour 
— could do nothing against lightly-armed and agile infantry 
led by men who knew every inch of the land they were 
defending. But now the Norman warriors gradually took 
to heart the lessons of recent campaigns, and saw that it 
was in castle-building on every coign of vantage that this 
Welsh land was to be really subdued. They persevered, 
and in the long run attained their object. 

Up to this time the revolt of the Cymry against the rule 
of the invaders had been attended with unexpectedly great 
success. They had recovered for the moment the control 
of the greater part of the land that had been Cymru before 
the conquest of England. But in 1098 the whole scene 
changes. Till then Cadwgan seems to have been able to 
keep the Cymric chieftains in active alliance for a longer 
period than usual, but suddenly he (the "Brut" joins Gruffyd 
ab Cynan with him) appears to have been obliged to take 
a defensive attitude. The great border earls, Hugh the 
Fat of Chester and Hugh the Proud of Shrewsbury, of 
whom we have heard nothing for some time, determined to 
make an expedition to Mon. Cadwgan and his allies 
according to the " Brut " retreated to the strongest places, 
but according to the "Annales" to the island itself. They 
enlisted into their service a fleet of pirates or vikings 
(gentiles de Ybernia). Whether this was before or after this 
new Norman expedition had reached Mon is not clear, but 

' "Brut," s.a. 1095. "Ann. Camb.," s a. 1097. " Eng. Chrun.," s.a. 
1097. 



288 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

it is said that the Cymric leaders agreed in council to save 
the island. The two earls reached Abertleiniog, and en- 
trenching themselves began the rebuilding or repair of the 
castle. Whatever were the efforts made by the Welsh 
leaders, they were made in vain. There were influences 
of the usual character at work undermining the power ot 
the militar}^ leaders of the Cymry, and, "for fear of the 
treachery of their own men," Cadwgan and Gruff\'d fled to 
Ireland.^ M6n was at the mere)' of the earls. The\' and 
their followers behaved with a cruelty excessive even in 
this period ; the}' did not simply slay, but blinded and 
ferociously mutilated those of the native enem}' on whom 
they could lay their hands. 

The sequence of events in this year is quite obscure, 
but the result is plain enough. The combination which 
the authorit)' and abilit)- of Cadwgan had brought about 
fell to pieces (perhaps onl)' from the inconstancy of the 
people, but perhaps also from reverses of which we are 
not informed), and the work of the last four }'ears was 
quickly undone. The Cymry, however, had some revenge, 
for the Norman earls, while mercilessly punishing the 
natives of Mon, were called upon to reckon with Magnus 
son of Olaf of Norway, who was roving about the west 
coast of Britain.- He one day appeared off AberHeiniog 
with some of his ships, and an engagement was brought 
on between the Normans and the crews of his ves.sels. 
Magnus b)' an arrow sped from his own bow killed Hugh 
of Shrewsbury, who was leading his men on the sea-shore. 
The viking, however, did not sta)' to succour the Welsh, 
but sailed off, and so, according to the words of the Brut, 
" the French reduced all, as well great as small, to the level 



' '-Brut," s.a. 1096. "Ann. Camb.," s.a. 109S. " Flor. Wig.," s.a. 
1098. 
- As to the expedition of Magnus, see F"ieeman, Wm. R. ii., 126. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066—128?. 289 

of Saxons."^ Of what went on in the south we know 
little, though the later events show that the Norman lords 
recovered and strengthened the position they had already- 
occupied, and continued to extend their dominions. The 
slaying of Lewelyn, one of the sons of Cadwgan, in the 
next year (1099), i" ^ conflict with the men of Brecheiniog 
(probably the men of Bernard of Newmarch), seems to 
mark the end of the revolt in south-east Wales." 

Some time in the course of 1099 Cadwgan and Gruffyd 
returned from Ireland. The former made peace with the 
Normans, and received Keredigion and part of Powj-s.^ 
Gruffyd obtained possession of Mon, whether by force or 
not is uncertain, but it seems clear that he did not obtain 
a grant from the king, at any rate at this time. Matters 
remained in this position in Wales during 11 00 — the year 
in which William Rufus was killed and Henry I. became 
king. In iioi, however, the rjsvolt of Robert de Belleme 
had important effects on the affairs of the west. Robert 
and Arnulf his brother, on breaking with the king, asked 
for the assistance of Cadwgan and his brothers lorwerth 
and Maredud, whom they regarded, and seemingly legally, 
as their vassals. The Welsh princes complied with the 
request or command of the rebel earls, and repaired to them 
at Shrewsbury, where they were received " magnificently 

' Freeman thought these words had a strange sound. So they have, if the 
Rolls translation is taken literally. There Ab Ithel translates the Welsh text 
thus : " The French reduced all . . . to he Saxons." But the Welsh words 
are : "A do-yn aoruc y Freinc oil a mao-r a bychan hyt ar y vSaeson." What 
the Welsh writer meant was that the Normans reduced the Cymry to the 
level of the conquered Saxons. " Hyt ar y Saeson " is equivalent to " usque 
ad Saxones." The word " Saeson" was long a term of contempt among the 
Cymry. 

- "Brut," J.a. 1097. "Ann, Camb.," j.a. 1099. 

^ "Brut,"j-.a. 1097 (really 1099). "Ann. Camb.," .?.«. 1099. Cadwgan 
seems to have received the lands as feudal tenant from Robert de Belleme, who 
was now Earl of Shrewsbury. See " Brut," s.a iioo : " Robert and Arnulf 
invited the Britons who were subject to them in respect of their possessions and 
titles, etc." 

W.P. u 



290 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

and honourably." The earls made threat promi.se.s, and 
" gladdened the country with liberty." Cadwgan called 
together the host of the territories of the house of Bledyn, 
and together with the earls obtained temporary successes. 
Henry, however, speedily laid siege to Bridgenorth, the 
principal castle of Robert, and at the same time astutely 
resorted to arts of diplomacy. William Pantulf was on the 
side of the king, and opened negotiations with lorwerth 
with a view to detaching the Welsh from the Norman rebels. 
The result of the dealings between William and lorwerth 
was that Henry promised lorwerth, if he would come 
over to his side, with the Welsh forces, that he would grant 
him for his ow^n (Henry's) life Powys, Keredigion, half of 
Dyfed,^ Ystrad Towi, Kidweli, and Gower, without homage 
and without tribute. lorwerth was taken in, and, without 
informing his brothers, accepted the king's terms. lorwerth 
went to the castle of the king, and sent orders to the Welsh 
forces to turn against Robert. They obeyed, and thoroughly 
despoiled the territory of the earls, collecting immense 
booty. Their work was probabl}' made easier by the fact 
that Robert was taken by surprise, and the spoil was 
greater because the earl had placed such confidence in his 
Welsh allies that he had sent his "dairies, cattle, and 
riches " amongst them for safety. 

Before the end of the year Robert submitted, and was 
allowed to cross over to Normandy. We have no ex- 
planation of the way in which lorwerth induced the Welsh 
to follow him without any apparent sanction on the part 
of Cadwgan or Maredud, but there was an immediate 
quarrel among the brothers. lorwerth seized Maredud 
and caused him to be confined in one of the king's 
prisons, but conferred on Cadwgan a portion of that great 
area which he assumed the king would grant him. Henry, 

' " As the other half had been given to the son of Baldwin," " Brut," s.a. 
Iioo. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 291 

however, had been simply using lorwerth as a tool, and 
refused to perform his bargain. Pembroke was given to 
one Saer, from whom it passed in 1104 to Gerald of 
Windsor, who had been for some years holding it as 
steward. Ystrad Towi, Kidweli, and Gower were granted 
to Howel ab Goronwy. Unless there is some explana- 
tion, Henry was guilty not only of a mean duplicity, 
but of brutal cruelty as well. He caused lorwerth, now 
apparently no longer in command of any force, to be 
brought before the Council at Shrewsbury on a charge 
of treason. The Welsh prince was convicted, fined, and 
cast into prison, not as the Welsh chronicler justly says> 
according to right, but according to might. He was kept 
in confinement till 1109, when the king "remembered 
the imprisonment of lorwerth," and released him on hard 
conditions.^ 

The settlement of Welsh affairs made by Henry in 1102 
was then this : — -The Norman lords retook or retained the 
fortresses that they had built ; the land of Deheubarth and 
Powys not actually in Norman hands was divided between 
Howel ab Goronwy and the descendants of Bledyn. The 
former received Ystrad Towi, Kidweli, and Gower as fiefs 
from the king, and Cadwgan and other former members 
of the cenedl of Bledyn were expressly or tacitly con- 
firmed in the possession of Keredigion and parts of Powys 
on terms of vassalage. In the north Gruffyd still held 
M6n, and probably some parts of Gwyned on the main- 
land. Except the North Welsh prince, the members of the 
Welsh princely families were now practically in the position 
of tenants in capita of Henry. Cadwgan's temporarily 
successful attempt to shake off the Norman yoke had failed, 
and the new settlers had a still firmer grip on Welsh 
territory. 

> The main authorities for these events, so far as the Welsh were concerned 
in them, are the " Brut " and " Ann. Camb." 

U 2 



292 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

Howel ab Goronwy did not long enjoy the possessions he 
had received from the king. He was a grandson of Rhys 
ab Tewdwr, but had been false to the cause of Cymric 
independence. He was at feud with the house of Bledyn, 
and was soon in trouble with Richard son of Baldwin as to 
Rhyd y Gors Castle. As we gather, Howel claimed it as 
part of his dominion, but it is not likely that this claim was 
acquiesced in, though when we last heard of it it had been 
deserted by its Norman garrison. It was now, however, 
again in " French " hands. Through this quarrel Howel was 
expelled from his dominions, but he quickly retaliated, 
raided the Norman territory and killed many of the 
" French who were returning home," and regained posses- 
sion of his land. But in the following year (i 105) he fell a 
victim to a conspiracy formed among his own surroundings, 
which, without an undue stretch of imagination, we may 
believe to have been instigated by Cadwgan or some of his 
kinsmen. Howel, following the custom of the times, had 
given one of his sons in fosterage to Gwgawn, " whom of all 
men he most trusted." From some motive (but as if to give 
point to the observations of Giraldus as to foster-fathers) 
Gwgawn either began or joined in a plot against Howel. 
According to the story handed down to us, he invited 
Howel to his house, having in the meantime arranged with 
the " French " that a band should be in a place near the 
house, where they were to wait till the appointed time. 
They agreed ; Howel, without suspicion, accepted the 
invitation and went to Gwgawn's residence. The " F^rench," 
as arranged, about daybreak surrounded the house where 
the prince was sleeping ; at the given signal they gave a loud 
shout ; Howel awaking sought for his sword and spear, but 
found they had been taken away ; he called for his men-at- 
arms, but they had deserted. He escaped from the house, 
but was pursued and captured by Gwgawn and his men. 
They brought him, already nearl)' dead from strangling. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 293 

to the Norman band, by whom he was unmercifully 
beheaded.^ 

The considerable area given by Henry to this Howel was 
not, it would seem, again granted to one man, but we sub- 
sequently find diverse portions of it in the possession of 
Welshmen. They indulged, as usual, in raiding adjoining 
territories and in killing and sometimes mutilating one 
another. But now the process of fusion between them and 
the Norman lords was going on, and the whole of the south 
was rapidly assuming a frankly feudal aspect. While the 
princes and the more important uchelwyr were ruining them- 
selves by their incessant quarrels, the men of smaller posses- 
sions or pretensions and the inferior orders over a good deal 
of the country generally stuck to their lands, notwithstanding 
the changes among their overlords. When the lord over 
them was a Cymro, the Welsh customs continued in force ; 
when he was Norman, the Norman-English laws prevailed 
as a rule, though in some instances Welsh law, more or less 
modified, was recognised over the whole or part of the 
lordship. 

In 1 108 Cadwgan was still in undisturbed possession of 
Keredigion and the parts of Powys which he had received 
from Henry. He had in his earlier years displayed 
capacity above the average, but from causes which can 
only be conjectured he had now become a somewhat weak 
and incompetent ruler. His few remaining years were 
clouded in misfortune, and especially disturbed by the 
turbulent conduct of his son Owain. This man (whose 
career is fully enough told in the Chronicles, and is the most 
romantic handed down to us) was typical of the race from 
which he sprang. He possessed the best and the worst 
characteristics of the Cymric princely families. His first 
recorded feat is the slaying of the sons of Trahaiarn ab 
Caradog. His next adventure was an attack on Pembroke 

' "Brut,"j.a. 1 103 (really 1105). 



294 ^^^^ WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

Castle and the abduction of Nest/ then the wife of Gerald 
of Windsor — one that influenced the whole of his after 
life. The story goes that in 1107 Gerald of Windsor was 
still holding Pembroke. He had deposited there " all his 
riches, with his wife, his heirs and all dear to him, and he 
fortified it with a ditch and a wall and a gateway with a 
lock to it." The next year at Christmastime Cadwgan 
made a feast in honour of God, at which Owain was present. 
The conversation turned upon the charms of Nest. Owain, 
fired by the accounts of her beauty, paid a visit to Pem- 
broke, and being received as her kinsman (as in fact he 
was) made the acquaintance of the lady. Soon afterwards 
with a small band he made a raid at night on the castle, 
set fire to the houses near it, and perhaps to the fortress, 
itself. Forcing an entrance, though Gerald escaped by the 
connivance of his wife, Owain carried away Nest as well 
as the children, and returned with them and the more usual 
booty to his own land. 

Cadwgan was greatly disturbed at such an outrage 
against a man high in the king's favour. He tried to 
induce his son to return to the great steward, his wife and 
the spoils, but in vain. The children were, however, sent 
back, but Nest herself was for the time retained. 

Richard, steward for the king at Shrewsbur}', hearing of 
this misdeed, sent for Ithel and Madog, sons of Rhirid ab 
Bledyn, and persuaded them by large promises to try to 
seize Owain, or, if not, to expel both him and Cadwgan 
from their country. Richard promised to procure for them 
the assistance of Lywarch ab Trahaiarn (who was at feud 
with Owain by reason of the slaying of his brothers), and 
also that of Uchtryd ab P^dwin. Ithel and Madog collected 
their men and entered Cadwgan's country. Uchtryd met 
them, but seems to have pla}'ed a double part. The 

' Nest had been a mistress of Henry I. She has been called the " Helen 
of Wales." 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066 -1282. 295 

inhabitants fled in various directions. Cadwgan and Owain 
took refuge in a ship at i\berdovey. The expedition did 
not achieve much beyond creating the usual confusion, and 
nothing except a few murders, the burning of houses, and 
the desecration of the church at Landewy Brefi was 
accomplished. Owain with some companions thought it 
prudent to retire to Ireland, while Ithel and Madog seized 
the part of Powys that the king had granted to Cadwgan. 
The latter secretly went to some lands in Powys which he 
possessed in right of his wife. He soon, however, made 
peace with the king, and on the payment of one hundred 
pounds was allowed to return to Keredigion on condition 
that there should be neither communication nor friendship 
between him and his son. 

Owain thereupon returned from Ireland and hied him to 
Powys. He attempted to send a message to the king, but 
no man was bold enough to carry it. In the meantime 
Madog ab Rhirid had quarrelled with the Normans on 
account, as he alleged, of robberies committed by the 
Saxons, and refused any further to obey the commands of 
the steward of Shrewsbury. In these circumstances he 
sought the friendship of his former enemy Owain, who, 
nothing loth, came to an understanding with him. They 
mutually vowed upon sacred relics that neither would 
be reconciled to the king without the other, and that neither 
would betray the other. They then cast aside all pretence 
of ruling by any law or obeying any lord ; with armed 
bands they wandered about the country wherever their 
destiny might lead them. Making their headquarters 
among the mountains and forests of Powys, they set their 
hands against every man. They burned the hamlets of 
the gwyrda around, stole horses and cattle, and did not 
disdain to carry off clothes or whatever they could find. 

This line of conduct was continued into the following year 
(i 109). They were in the habit of carrying off their booty 



296 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

into the lands which had formerly been the share of the 
then captive lorwerth. In that year, however, the king, as 
we have mentioned, released lorwerth upon his making 
promises the performance of which he was not wholly able 
to compass, but he, however, was allowed to return to his 
lands. He made kindly representations to the two lawless 
chieftains, pointing out the danger in which Cadwgan and 
he himself were placed by their wild lives ; he asked them 
as a relative and commanded them as their lord not to 
enter his or his brothers territories. But Owain and Madog 
were now desperate men ; they treated lorwerth's messages 
with scorn, and frequented the forbidden lands all the more, 
lorwerth, sincerely anxious to carry out the king's wishes 
and restore some degree of order, took stronger measures 
and attempted to capture them. 

Hunted from place to place, they, with their followers, 
went over the border of Meirionyd, then possessed by 
Uchtryd. Before they had left Cyfeiliog they were met 
by the sons of that chieftain, who were, however, not strong 
enough to repel them. Uchtryd found it necessary to 
assemble the host of Meirionyd, and came forward to 
defend his territory in well-ordered array. Some part 
of the forces of the invaders seem to have fled — probably 
the men of Madog ; but Owain advanced bravely, and 
the men of Meirionyd, apparently awed either by the 
number of his followers or his fame as a warrior, suddenly 
took to flight. 

Owain and Madog then ravaged as usual, burning 
houses, but this time killing the cattle because they had 
no place to which to take them. They however now 
.separated ; the latter went into Powys and the former 
.into Kercdigion. There Owain with his band remained, 
" dwelling where he thought proper," in defiance of 
Cadwgan's orders. He made a raid into Dyfed, and 
terrorised the whole country. Finally, his misdeeds 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 297 

culminated in the murder of a Fleming, one William of 
Brabant, on the highroad. Cadwgan and lorwerth, seriously 
alarmed, and unable to curb Owain's lawlessness, repaired 
to the king and obtained an interview. Even while they 
were conversing news of the murder of William of Brabant 
was brought by his brother to the king. Henry sternly 
questioned Cadwgan, and, though satisfied that he was not 
aiding Owain, deprived him of his lands, and, on condition 
that he should not set his foot on his native soil, pensioned 
him. The king bestowed Keredigion on Gilbert son of 
Richard, the founder of the house of Clare, who, having 
collected a force, took possession of Keredigion, and for a 
time strengthened the Norman hold by building two castles : 
one at Lanbadarn, and another near Aberteivi at a place 
called Dingeraint. 

When Owain heard that his father was dispossessed he 
once more retreated to Ireland. His associate Madog had 
gone there before him, and it is not without a smile that 
we can read in the Chronicle " that not being able to endure 
the savage manners of the Gwydyl" he soon returned, 
leaving Owain to bear the ills of life in Ireland as he might. 
lorwerth had not, like Cadwgan, been detained by the king, 
and when Madog returned was occupying his land in Powys. 
Madog sought there an abiding-place, but he was not 
welcomed by lorwerth, and not daring to seek his presence 
he " skulked here and there." lorwerth's anger was such 
that he ordered that no man should even venture to mention 
the name of Madog. 

Underlying these events we can see two currents of 
opinion among the Cymric chieftains. The older men, 
like Cadwgan and lorwerth, saw that their only course was 
to retain possession of as much of the Cymric land as 
possible as vassals of Henry. The younger men were 
imbued with notions of an impossible independence. The 
deeds of Owain and Madog could hardly have been 



298 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

performed if there had not been a latent and perhaps, on 
occasion, overt sympathy with them on the part of a section 
of the Cymric inhabitants. We are now coming to the 
close of the story. Madog, smarting under his ill reception 
by his uncle lorwerth, planned a terrible revenge. He had 
maintained friendship with Levvelyn ab Trahaiarn, of whom 
we have already heard. They jointly determined to kill 
lorwerth, and, finding at last a favourable time, Madog, 
with the assistance of Lewelyn's men, attacked him at 
Caercinion, where he was staying for the night. lorwerth 
bravely defended himself, but the timber building in which 
he was reposing was fired by Madog. lorwerth's attendants 
fled, and seeing the house falling in he, already sorely 
burnt, tried to escape, but rushing out of the house he was 
slain by the spears of his enemies. Madog retreated into 
the mountain lands and lurked in woods and recesses, for 
he had yet another uncle to kill. 

When tidings of the murder of lorwerth were brought 
to Henry he released Cadwgan and granted Powys to 
him, at the same time requesting him to send messages 
of forgiveness to Owain, who was still a fugitive in Ireland. 
The messages arrived too late to save his father from 
the wrath of Madog. Cadwgan proceeded to Powys and 
stayed at Tratlwng Lewelyn, " never supposing that any 
man could intend him mischief." Madog had, however, 
determined that he should die, and one day he and his 
band set upon Cadwgan. The aged prince's men deserted 
or were overcome, and Cadwgan, who conducted himself 
" weakly," was put to death. Madog now boldly demanded 
from Richard of Shrewsbury a grant of Cadwgan's land, 
for which, so the Chronicle says, the crimes had been com- 
mitted. Richard temporised, but ultimately gave him the 
share of the country which he and his brother Ithel had 
formerly possessed. The fact is that neither Henry nor 
his officers on the borders took much interest in the feuds 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 299 

between the Welsh princes, and were evidently quite 
ready to condone the destruction of such inconstant 
vassals. 

The remaining son of Bledyn, Maredud, on hearing 
of the death of Cadwgan, obtained from Henry the custody 
of lorwerth's lands till Owain should return from Ireland. 
These events had taken place in mo, and later on in 
the same year Owain returned from Ireland. Roth he 
and Madog had interviews with Henry, and were invested 
with lands on giving pledges and promising " much 
money." ^ But their friendship had now ceased, owing 
to the murder of Cadwgan, and " each of them avoided 
the other " for a time. Peace was maintained in Powys 
during iiii, but in the year after we find Maredud 
making an incursion into the lordship of Lywarch ab 
Trahaiarn. The expedition passed through Madog's terri- 
tory. Maredud's men by torturing a man of the country 
discovered the whereabouts of Madog ; they decided to 
attack him, and by a sudden effort made him a prisoner, 
slaying many of his companions. He was brought to his 
uncle Maredud. Owain, hearing of the affair, came in 
haste to the prince, who delivered Madog into his hands. 
Owain spared his prisoner's life, but ruthlessly caused him 
to be blinded, thereby destroying his capacity for further 
mischief. We hear nothing more of him, and Maredud 
and Owain divided between them his share of Powys."^ 

During these events Gruffyd ab Cynan was ruling in 
Gwyned, and consolidating the power of his family. In 
1 1 14, however, Hugh, Earl of Chester, accused him of 

1 Madog's portion was Caereinion, and a third of Deudwr and Aberrhiw. 
Caereinion and Deudwr were cymwds in Powys. Y Rhiw was a cantref in 
that ancient kingdom, but does not seem to have been identical with 
Aberrhiw. 

■^ The '"Brut" and "Ann. Camb." are the authorities for the events we 
have been narrating. See the excellent lives of Cadwgan, lorwerth, and 
Owain in "Diet. Nat. Biog." 



300 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

various misdeeds, and about the same time Gilbert Fitz- 
Richard (who, as we have seen, had become lord of 
Keredigion) complained of robberies made by Owain ab 
Cadwgan.^ The king, believing the charges against 
Owain at any rate to be true, made an expedition into 
Wales. Owain took refuge in the mountains of Snow- 
don re<jion ; Maredud submitted at once. There is no 
record of any fighting, and Owain not only made terms 
with the king, but was received into favour and accom- 
panied him in an honourable capacity to Normandy. 
Gruffyd made peace on payment of a large tribute. The 
kingdom or principality of Powys was now practically at an 
end, and the surviving members of the Welsh princely 
cenedloed of that region had become vassals of the king. 
The whole of Cymru except Gwyned was divided between 
Norman and Welsh lords, who came to be called Lords- 
Marchers. The subsequent history of the south and central 
Wales resolves itself into the records of quarrels between 
these lords and the rise and fall of baronial families. 

The end of Owain ab Cadwgan's stormy career may be 
told in a {q\v words. Gruffyd, a son of that Rhys ab 
Tewdwr who had fallen in 1093, had been taken for safety 
with some of his kin to Ireland. About 1112 he returned 
to what the '" Brut " calls his patrimony, but for two years 
he led a scniewhat wandering life. The spirit of inde- 
pendence was not yet wholly quelled in the south, and the 
hopes of the Cymry were now .set upon this young prince. 
How far Gruffyd actually encouraged these aspirations at 
this time we do not know, but the fact that he was or 
might be dangerous to the Norman interests was brought 
to the notice of Henry. Hearing of this circumstance, he 
took refuge with his namesake in the north, who received 
him with favour. Henry now summoned Gruff}^d ab 

The "Brut "places this in iiii, but the " Eiig. Chron." in iii4("Chron. 
Petrib." s.a.), which is the right date. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 301 

Cynan to his presence. With his usual prudence he obeyed 
the call, met the king, and at his instance promised to 
secure Gruffyd ab Rhys and send him a prisoner to 
England, or else to compass his death. The young Gruffyd, 
however, had received tidings of this treachery, and he 
escaped, first to the church of Aberdaron, and thence to 
Ystrad Towi, where he collected a force. In 11 16 he was 
raiding in various directions in South Wales. Owain ab 
Cadwgan was still with Henry, who commissioned him and 
Lywarch ab Trahaiarn to expel " that thief" Gruffyd" ab 
Rhys. They promptly collected an army and proceeded to 
Ystrad Towi. Owain harried the country, and some of 
the people fled to Carmarthen. At this time a force of 
Flemings led by Gerald of Windsor, apparently acting 
independently of Owain and Lywarch, was marching from 
Rhos in Dyfed towards Carmarthen, as we understand, 
with the intention of putting down Gruffyd ab Rhys. 
The inhabitants, who had fled at the approach of Owain, 
complained to Gerald of their having been attacked and 
robbed. The story reads as if the fugitives did not under- 
stand that it was not Owain the bandit, but Owain in a 
new character, who was coming into the country, nor is it 
clear whether Gerald knew of the king's commission, but 
it may be that there was treachery on his part or perhaps 
that the king had led Owain into a trap. However this 
may be, Gerald, who had of course never forgotten the 
insult that in earlier days had been put upon him, incited 
his Flemings against Owain. The forces met. The 
Flemings were the attacking party ; Owain bore the assault 
bravely, but in the first discharge of arrows he himself fell 
wounded ; dismayed by the fall of their leader, his men 
fled, and he was promptly despatched. 

" Thus," says Warrington, " died this bold and profligate 
chieftain agreeably to the tenour of his life." We cannot 
den)' the boldness and the profligacy ; but perhaps a broad 



302 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vir.) 

consideration of the circumstances under which he ran his 
short and violent course may lead to a lenient judgment 
on the character and conduct of a man of great energy and 
braver}^ For the Norman conquest of England there was 
some show of justification. The claims of Harold to the 
crown were not legall)' stronger than those of the Conqueror. 
But for the overrunning of Cymru by the more needy 
or ambitious of the followers of William and his successors 
there was no moral justification. The Cymric leaders 
had welcomed the overthrow of Harold, and neither mere 
border foray nor intestine quarrel could excuse the whole- 
sale seizure of the lands of the Welsh princel)' and noble 
families which had been in the possession of their cenedloed 
for centuries, or justify the breaking-up of a social and 
legal organisation which contained in itself the elements 
of national progress, and which would in all probability 
have resulted in a stable polity, had it been allowed to 
develop without interference, under men like Gruffyd ab 
Lewelyn, Bledyn, and Cadwgan. Owain and Madog were 
men who were suffering under the sense of grievous wrong, 
and though we, writing calmly, may condemn them as 
impolitic and imprudent, or, judging by modern standards, 
censure many of their acts as criminal, a truer criticism will 
accord some tribute of admiration to their intrepidity in 
fighting fearful odds — odds against them at home and odds 
against them beyond the borders of their native land. 

F'or some years longer Maredud ab Bled'yn and the 
remaining sons of Cadwgan upheld the claims of their 
cenedl to the sovereignty of so much of Powys as was 
not in the hands of Norman-English lords. Encouraged, 
perhaps, by the drowning of Richard, Earl of Chester, in 
the White Ship, they, in the course of 1 121, rose and gave 
cause of offence. Henry, deeming the matter serious enough 
to make another expedition necessary, entered Wales with 
an " immense and cruel army." Maredud and his friends 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 303 

appealed to Grufifyd: ab Cynan for help, but he, with a 
prudence unusual among the Welsh chieftains, refused to 
join them, and even threatened active opposition if they 
came over the border of his dominion.^ The lords of Powys 
took counsel together, and decided to adopt the defensive 
attitude. The king marched into Powys, and there was at 
any rate one engagement, during which an arrow struck 
the king, but, owing to the strength of his breast-plate, 
glanced off. It is doubtful whether the arrow was sped by 
a Welsh archer or by one of Henry's force, though the 
" Brut " is probably right when it claims that it was directed 
by one of " the young men " sent forward by Maredud to 
harass the enemy in their advance, Henry behaved with 
cowardice, and, greatly disconcerted, entered into negotia- 
tions, which led to the renewed submission of the Welsh 
leaders. Maredud and his allies "came under the king's 
peace."^ He did not again imbroil himself with the king, 
but he was involved in many domestic quarrels, and 
behaved with great cruelty to his relatives. He died in 
I r 29 or 1 1 30 in the odour of sanctity. The " Brut " describes 
him, with more generosity than justice, as the "ornament, 
and safety, and defence of all Powys." ^ 

The ruin of the house of Bledyn, so far as any claim to 
sovereignty was concerned, was now complete. The king- 
doms of Deheubarth and Powys, like the smaller regions of 
Dyfed, Morganwg, Gwent, Brecheiniog, and the rest, were 
destroyed as existing entities, save so far as occasional 
pretensions, the imagination of bards, or the friendly flattery 
of the adherents of the Cymric lords can be said to have 
kept them alive. In the south and in Powys the posses- 
sion of the descendants of the princely houses dwindled 
down to cymwds or cantrefs, largely those of the more 

1 "Brut,"5.a. 118. 

2 /i>u/. "Ann. Camb.," s.a. 1120. Freeman, " Norm. Conq.," v. 212. 
' " Brut," s.a, 1129. 



304 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

mountainous parts of the country, held more or less volun- 
tarily as vassals of the Norman king ; but in these sadly- 
diminished areas the cyfraitJi gyffredin (common law) of 
C}'mru was still the rule of right. The chieftains, though 
reduced in power, kept up according to their means the 
household state found in Howel's laws, haughtily cherished 
the memories of a departed greatness, and alternately 
sullenly acquiesced in the new state of things and eagerly 
seized an opportunity for revenge against Norman, Saxon, 
and Cymric neighbour alike. Notwithstanding that during 
the twelfth century the line of Rhys ab Tewdwr, in the 
persons of the two of its members who most clearly emerge 
to our view — Gruffyd ab Rhys and Rhys ab Gruffyd — 
carried on, with occasional very considerable succes.ses, 
warfare with the intruding Norman lords, and even the 
king of England, the hold of the central government was 
never permanently relaxed, except during the seventeen 
years of Stephen's unhappy reign, and the policy of conquest 
by settlement went on relentlessly. 

We must here pause for a moment to make a few 
observations on the legal aspect of the events that we have 
been narrating. As will be seen by-and-by, the whole of 
the Cymric lands, except that portion of the north which 
remained in the possession of Gruffyd ab Cynan and his 
descendants, became known as the Marches of Wales. By 
the time that we have reached it .seems to us that the whole 
of the country except Gwyned had, as we have said, now 
been feudalised, for there is a great deal of evidence that 
the Welsh chieftains in the territories which became the 
Marches had familiarised themselves with the notion that 
they held their lands of the king of England on terms 
analogous to those of the Lords-Marchers. Certainl)' this 
was the case over the greater part of Powys. It will be 
remembered that b}- Welsh law the uchelw\'r and free 
tribesmen did not, according to theory, hold their land of 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 305 

any king or prince, though the system was approximating 
to the Norman-EngHsh notions of tenure. The introduction 
of the first principle of feudal law was encouraged and 
made easy by the organisation of the cymwd as it had 
developed from the time of the Cymric settlement many 
centuries before.^ 

The transition from the ideas of land ownership found in 
the Welsh codes to the Norman-English system was not 
difficult. The kingship, as we have pointed out, under Cymric 
law was originally vested in a family ; it was not an office 
handed down from person to person in a defined order. 
Primogeniture was not a recognised principle. The chief- 
taincy of the kingly families was in early times probably 
transmitted according to the rules which governed the 
election to the headship of any cenedl ; but in the Venedo- 
tian Code the heir was to be sought in the last king's near 
relations, and was to be one marked out by him. Each 
gwlad was composed of an aggregate of cantrefs or cymwds. 
As the territorial idea became stronger and stronger, the 
chieftain of the ruling family of the gwlad found it expe- 
dient for the administration of his territory to place his sons 
or other kinsmen over this or that cantref or cymwd. 
Gradually these lords and their descendants so planted about 
the country got to look upon themselves as permanently 

' Mr. A. N. Palmer says: "The cymwd or commote became almost 
invariably the civic hundred, and it often became the feudal lordship. Very 
often, however, the feudal lordship was formed by a group of commotes, each 
of which long retained a separate organisation and many old Welsh forms of 
procedure, but was gradually assimilated to the English manor. It was quite 
unusual for the bounds of tlie commote to be changed." He gives as examples 
of lordships formed Vjy grouping cymwds those of Chirk, Denbigh, and 
DuiTryn Clwyd. See his learned note in App. to Report, 447. See also 
the "Memorandum on Lordships and Manors," compiled by Mr. Lenfar 
Thomas (App. to Report, 437) ; and especially notes contributed by 
Mr. Cobb, F.S.A. (438), Mr. Trevor P rk ns (449), Mr. Williams (451), 
Mr. John Lloyd (452), Mr. J. Hobson Matthews (459), and the late 
Mr. J. Stuart Corbet (465). 

W.P. X 



305 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

settled in the cantref or cymwd assigned to them, though 
recognising their allegiance to the head of their princely 
cenedl. The grants made from time to time to the 
Church, with the immunities of which we have spoken 
above, were also factors in familiarising the minds of men 
with defined territorial government. When the Cymric 
families came into contact with the Normans, with their 
fulh'-developed ideas of tenure, the transition from the old 
C>'mric tribal idea of the right to possession of land to that 
of the invaders was ver\^ rapid, and not long after the 
beginning of the twelfth centur\' there is ample evidence of 
the recogniti(jn b\' the Welsh princes over the greater part 
of Wales of this great change. 

In Gwyned the position was, and remained for a long 
time, somewhat dififerent, though it is not very easy to 
state precisely the legal relation of its prince to the 
Norman king. As far back as the time of yElfred, 
Welsh princes had commended themselves and after- 
wards repeatedly did homage to English kings ; but this 
commendation in the eighth, ninth, or tenth centuries 
was a very different thing from the receiving of a 
definite area of land from a Norman-English king in the 
twelfth century, as for instance did Cadwgan and his 
brothers. Bledyn and Rhiwatton had undoubtedly been 
invested b)' Harold, and so far as central and south Wales 
were concerned this fact was never lost sight of by the 
rulers of England. But Gruff}'d ab Cynan was not of the 
house of C>'nfyn, but a lineal descendant of Rhodri Mawr. 
He conquered M6n, and seems gradually to have obtained 
possession of various parts of the old kingdom of Gwyned" 
on the mainland, and we can find no evidence that he ever 
received his possessions by any grant from a Norman king, 
though he did homage to Henry I. His position, therefore, 
was different from that of the lords of the south. This 
view is confirmed by subsequent events, and by the 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 307 

preamble of the Statute of Rhudlan. The prince of Gwyned" 
continued to regard himself as a sovereign owing allegiance 
to the king of England in a personal capacity, but not 
admitting any jurisdiction of the royal court. As the power 
of the house of North Wales increased, some of the Welsh 
lords in areas outside Gwyned acknowledged its prince 
as their immediate lord, and even after the final conquest 
by Edward I., and as late as 1354, an Act of Parliament 
was deemed necessary to declare that all Lordships- 
Marchers were held of the king and not of the Prince 
of Wales. Whether these observations are well-founded or 
not, there is no doubt that Gwyned did occupy a special 
position, and that it was for nearly two hundred years after 
the downfall of the house of Bledyn practically inde- 
pendent. Henceforth the interest of Cymric affairs, not- 
withstanding the fitful struggles of the descendants of Rhys 
ab Tewdwr in the south, centres round the line of Gwyned. 
Gruffyd ab Cynan's long reign came to an end in 1137,^ 
when he died (having survived Henry I. by two years) at 
the age of eighty-two, after assuming the monastic habit. 
Though his attitude of isolation, his conduct in not joining 
the lords of the centre and the south in resisting the 
Norman invasion, and his open desertion of the cause of 
Gruffyd ab Rhys have been censured, yet subsequent 
events justify his prudent policy, and prove him to have 
been a wise and competent ruler in a very difficult time. 
But for his steady resolve to avoid wasting the strength of 
Gwyned^ in a fruitless attempt to hold all the Cymric land 
and to concentrate all the energies of the people on 
preserving the independence of the north-western districts, 
it is probable that Gwyned might even thus early have 
sustained the fate of Deheubarth and of Powys. Gruffyd 
made Gwyned for the time the centre of national life, and 
the eagerly-sought refuge of Welshmen dispossessed by 

' "lirul," s.a. 1136. "Ann. Cambr." 1137. The latter is the true date. 

X 2 



3o8 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

Norman intruders. The result of his poHcy was a great 
revival of Cymric power under a line of princes whose 
capacity gives interest, and even lustre, to the annals of 
Wales from this time to the final conquest of the princi- 
pality by Edward I. The space at our command does not 
enable us to deal at length with the fortunes of the house of 
Gwyned during this period, and we must content ourselves 
with a mere outline of the course of events.^ 

Gruffyd ab Cynan left several sons. Owain (usually 
called Owain Gw}'ned) succeeded to the principality, and 
his brothers (we may assume) received shares of their 
father's provisions in the customary manner. He and 
Cadwaladr had, before the aged prince's death, distin- 
guished themselves by raiding in the territories of the lords- 
marchers, and had even retained, for the time, some of the 
fortresses which had been built by the invaders. In the 
very year of his accession Owain and his brother Cadwaladr 
again marched to the south, and destroyed several castles.- 
During the seventeen years of Stephen's troubled reign the 
Welsh were left much to themselves, and the Norman lords 
who had settled in Wales had generally to depend on their 
own resources. Owain was later on troubled b}' a dispute 
with Cadwaladr, who was forced to flee into England, and 
there were, of course, constant feuds between the Welsh 
lords. It would be tedious to recount the vicissitudes of 
petty local quarrels which had no important consequences, 

' For an excellent account of Grufiyd see " Diet. Nat. Biog." Consult (in 
adoption to the usual sources) " Historia hen Grufl'ud %'ab Kenan vab Vago,' 
Myv. Arch, ii., 583-605 ; Arch. Cambr. , 3rd series, 1866. A Latin transla- 
tion of this life of Gruflyft oy Robinson, Bishop of Bangor (1566-S5), is pre- 
served in the library at Peniaith, and is printed in " Arch. Caiwhr. ,'' /t/>i utpra. 
To GrutTyrt is popularly ascribed the niakingof regulations regarding minstrelsy 
and minstrels. See the " Historia hen " ; J. D. Rhys' " Cambro-Brytannicffi 
CymrKCSive Lingua; Institutiones" (1592), translated in "Y Cymmrodor,"' 
i. 283-293 ; Stephens' " Lit. of the Kymry," 2nd edition, p. 56. The bard 
Meilir composed an elegy on Gruffyd. (Stephens, itbi supra, p. 12.) 

3 "Brut,"j.a. 1136 — really X137. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 309 

and we will content ourselves with stating that when, after 
the peace of Wallingford and the death of Stephen, 
Henry 11. became king the prince of Gwyned: had materi- 
ally added to the resources of his country and re-occupied 
several places or districts from which the Welsh had been 
expelled earlier in the century; while in the south Rhys ab 
Gruffyd, who came of the princely line of Deheubarth, had 
obtained several comparatively important successes.^ 

Some three years elapsed before hostilities broke out 
between the new king and Owain, but in 1157 Henry 
invaded North Wales. It is not clear what provocation 
had been given by the Welsh, but it is probable the king was 
induced to take this step at the instigation of Cadwaladr 
and of Madog ab Maredud (one of the lords of Powys), 
who had both quarrelled with the prince of Gwyned:.^ 
Henry advanced through " the champaign land of Chester." 
Owain, entrenching himself at Basingwerk, awaited him. 
The king divided his forces ; the main body was directed 
to proceed along the coast and attack the Welsh in front, 
while the king himself, intending to take the enemy in flank 
and to cut off his retreat to the mountains, turning to his 
own left, went into the forest of Kennadlawg; but his tactics 
were anticipated. He was surprised in " the trackless wood " 
by Davyd and Cynan, two of O wain's sons, and defeated. 
It was only with difficulty and loss that he escaped into 
the open country.^ Owain did not, however, risk a pitched 
battle, but retreated to Kil Owain, near St. Asaph. The 
king gathered his army together and proceeded to Rhud'lan. 
Owain then moved to Lwyn Pina, and from there, with the 
help of Madog ab Maredud" (one of the chief barons of 

^ His father, Gruffyd (who is described by the " Brut " as " the Hght and 
strength and gentleness of the men of South Wales "), died in 1137. 

" The formal pretext for the invasion was very likely that Owain had not 
done homage. 

^ It was probably in this engagement that the Earl of Essex, overcome by 
terror, abandoned the royal standard. 



310 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

Powys), harassed the king by day and night. Henry's 
army was supported by a fleet which sailed along the 
coast ; a force of seamen and " youths fit for battle " effected 
a landing in Mon, but, after some pillaging of churches, 
was defeated with heavy slaughter by the men of 
the island. 

Henry's attempt was a failure, but still was not without 
effect. Peace was quickly made on the terms of Owain's 
doing homage and restoring Cadwaladr to his share of the 
possessions of the late prince. In the same or the following 
year all the Welsh princes or barons except Rhys ab 
Gruffyd submitted to the king. 

Rhys had been waging a sporadic warfare against the 
neighbouring lords-marchers from the recesses of Ystrad 
Towi. Henry sent him a message ordering his attendance 
at Court to do homage. Rhys, acting on the advice of his 
uchelwyr, went to the king, and made his peace on condi- 
tion of receiving Cantref Mawr, and such other cantref 
as the king should be pleased to give him, " whole and not 
scattered." Henry agreed, but did not literally perform 
the condition. For some years there was comparative 
quiet in Wales, and in 1 164 both Owain and Rln's appeared 
at the council at Woodstock and renewed their homage. 

Rh}'s, however, soon began to raid the lands of the 
Norman lords, because, as the " Brut " says, the king did not 
fulfil his promises. Having regard to the general character 
of the Norman-English kings, we see no reason to doubt 
this view, or to believe that Rhys, wlio, on the whole, was 
one of the best of the later South Welsh princes, and 
afterwards became Justiciar of South Wales under Henry, 
was in the wrong in this quarrel. Rhys took, dismantled, 
and burnt the castle at Aber Rheidol, and overran 
Keredigion a second time. 

Probably encouraged b}- this success, and influenced by 
circumstances of which we have no knowledge, the Welsh 



HISTORY OF WALES. 1066— 1282. 311 

barons, with Owain at their head, combined and joined in 
the revolt begun by Rhys. Davyd ab Owain ravaged 
Tegeingl, and Henry, apprehending a further attack in 
force on the castles of that cantref, hastened to Rhudlan, 
but, finding matters more serious than he expected, after 
staying there only three nights, returned to England. 
Having collected a mixed but large force, he marched to 
Oswestry. The combined Welsh hosts (under Owain and 
Cadwaladr, as well as Owain Cyfeiliog and other lords of 
Powys) encamped at Corwen. There was, however, no 
considerable engagement. The Welsh adopted a defensive 
attitude ; the king hesitated to attack. He ultimately 
moved into the wood of Ceiriog, causing ways to be cut in 
advance through the forest, and penetrated to the country 
near the Berwyn range ; but the weather having become 
tempestuous and his supplies having failed, he was com- 
pelled to lead his men to "the open plains of England," 
and thence to Chester. Angry and disappointed, he 
cruelly blinded some of the Welsh hostages who were m 
his custody, and abandoned for the time b^ing further 
attempts to crush the Welsh. 

Later in the year Henry left England, and was absent 
for about six years, during which, though there were the 
usual disputes and occasional raidings among the Welsh 
lords, there was no warfare of consequence. The most 
serious quarrel was one in 1167 between Owain and Rhys 
on the one side, and Owain Cyfeiliog on the other, in which, 
after some fighting, the latter, with Norman aid, came off 
the better ; but in the course of the year Owain and Rhys 
took and destroyed the castles at Rhudlan and Prestatyn. 
Nothing which tended to retard the growing power of 
Gwyned occurred until the death of Owain in 1169 led 
to a contest between his sons. His later years had been 
clouded by a quarrel with the Church, caused partly by a 
disputed election to the see of Bangor and partly by his 



312 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

marriage with Crisiant, his cousin, who was within the 
prohibited degrees of consanguinity. In the end he was 
excommunicated by Archbishop Thomas a Becket, but, 
notwithstanding this, he received the last sacraments and 
Christian burial. The Welsh chronicler praises him as a 
man of " the most extraordinary sagacity, nobleness, 
fortitude, and bravery." ^ 

Upon Owain's death the succession to the principality 
was disputed among his sons. Cadwaladr did not advance 
any claims, though he survived his brother for three or four 
years.- Howel ab Owain, the late prince's eldest son, and 
Davyd, his son by Crisiant, were both deemed illegitimate 
by the clergy. lorwerth, the eldest legitimate son, was for 
some reason passed over altogether, though, as we shall see, 
his son Lewelyn later on obtained Gwyned, and raised the 
principality to its highest point of power and renown. 
Howel had, as early as 1144, taken part in military affairs, 
but he is better known as the author of some graceful 
poems than as a warrior. Immediately after Owain's death 
he seized or was elected to the inheritance. But his hold 
on the country was very slight (perhaps on account of the 
Irish origin of Pyvog, his mother), and Davyd, who claimed 
the throne, overcame and slew him in 11 70.'' The victor, 
however, only made good his claim to part of the territories 
of Owain. His brother Maelgwn seized M6n, and other 
members of the family refused to submit. In [ 173 Davyd 
expelled Maelgwn from that island, and by 1174 had 



' The poet Gwalclimai celebrates his prowess in an ode iij)on which Gray 
founded liis fragment "The Triumph of Owen." Stephens' "Lit. of the 
Kymry," 2nd edition, p. 18. 

- According to the " Brut " he died in 1172. 

•' Howel ab Owain is celebrated among the bards of the twelfth century. 
Stephens says he is '"the most sprightly and charming poet" he has to 
mention. (Stephens. til>i supra, \). 41.) An ode to him by KyniJelw, and a 
lament on his death by Periv ab Kedivor, are extant. ] jKedivor was Howel's 
foster-father. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 313 

captured or driven into exile all his brothers or near 
relations who refused to recognise his paramount position. 

When the barons revolted against Henry II., Davyd, 
instead of pursuing the usual policy of the Welsh and 
siding with the rebellious and discontented men of the 
realm, remained faithful to the king ; and it was due to 
this fact that he was permitted to marry, in 1 175, the king's 
bastard sister Emma, the daughter of Geoffrey Plantagenet 
by a lady of Maine. He thought, no doubt, that this 
alliance would not only make his position in Gwyned more 
secure, but that it would in other ways be of advantage. 
But while such a connection did enhance the position of 
his family among the great houses of the whole country it 
did him no good at home, and almost immediately there 
were signs of coldness and disaffection towards him on the 
part of the barons of North Wales. Before the end of the 
year his brother Rhodri(whom he had treated badly) escaped, 
and, finding followers, possessed himself of M6n and part 
of the mainland, while his nephews, the sons of Cynan ab 
Owain, occupied Meirionyd. Davyd was unable to protect 
himself, and was driven over the Conway. He then turned 
for assistance to the English Court, and attended the 
Council at Oxford in 1177 with some of the Welsh barons 
who were still well affected to him, where they swore fealty 
to Henry. Apparently by way of compensation for the 
losses he had sustained, he received a grant of Ellesmere. 
But his power over Gwyned now became nominal ; the 
leaders of the Welsh were completely alienated, and his real 
sway was limited to Rhudlan and the Vale of Clwyd with 
his newly-acquired estate. Nothing is known about him 
for some years, but we find that in 1188 he entertained 
Archbishop Baldwin and Giraldus Cambrensis very hand- 
somely at Rhudlan, on their journey through WalesJ 

' Giraldus describes Rhudlan as a very noble castle. " Itin, Cambr.," 
ii. c. 10, 



314 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

Giraldus notes, however, that even then Davyd was 
beginning to be harassed by Lewelyn ab lorwerth or his 
adherents. Henry II. died in 1189, and was succeeded by 
Richard Coeur de Lion, whose prolonged absence for many 
years prevented much interference with Welsh affairs. 
Lewelyn's friends became more and more numerous ; he 
allied himself with Rhodri, his uncle, and expelled Davyd 
even from the Vale of Clwyd. Taking refuge in luigland 
(probably residing in Ellesmere), Dav}^d lived on in 
obscurity, and died unnoticed in 1203.^ 

During the years after the death of Owain Gw}'ned, in 
which Davyd attempted and failed to secure the actual rule 
of the principalit}', Rhys ab Gruff)'d (the representative of 
the old princely line of Deheubarth), to whom we have had 
occasion to refer more than once as the ally of Owain, 
pursued a more successful career in the south, though the 
success was purchased by a complete submission to the 
English crown. After reluctantly doing homage to Henry, 
as we have stated above, Rhys, finding the king's promises 
not to be trusted, and that " he could not preserve anything 
of what the king had given him except by force of arms,"- 
made his headquarters in Cantref Mawr, and for many years 
engaged in almost continual warfare with the lords-marchers 
within his reach, and sometimes with his Welsh neighbours. 
In I 171, after a campaign against Owain Cyfeiliog, at the 
end of which the latter submitted, there occurred a sudden 
change in the polic}' of Rhys. Henr\', returning after a 
prolonged absence to England, forthwith planned and 
proceeded to carr}' out an invasion of Ireland. Rh\'s, 
apparently on his own initiative, sought the friendship of 
the king, and made offers of assistance. His overtures 

' In 1200 John undertook to protect tlie lands of Ellesmere and Hales, 
which belonged to Davyft or his wife (Rotuli Chart. 44 a). lie left a son, 
Owain, who exchanged EUesjnere for lands in Lincolnshire. 

- " Brut,'" s.a. 1157. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 315 

were accepted, and on his appearing before the king at 
Pembroke, where the EngHsh forces were awaiting a favour- 
able opportunity of crossing the channel, he " obtained 
grace," and was received into high favour. Henry granted 
to him Keredigion and other lands, and handed back his 
son Howel, who had been given as hostage some time 
before. Though the Irish expedition was a failure, Rhys 
remained then and thenceforward true to his allegiance, 
and the king on his return made him Justiciar of South 
Wales. The holding of this office, far from alienating the 
Welsh, added to his authority ; he was called emphatically 
" the lord " Rhys, the style by which he is still known 
among the Welsh-speaking people. He rebuilt the castle 
of Aberteifi (Cardigan) " with stone and mortar," whence 
for many years he ruled over a large part of South Wales 
in comparative peace, and died at an advanced age in 1197.^ 
For some years before the death of Davyd, his nephew 
Lewelyn had obtained possession of the greater part of 
Gwyned. The son of that lorwerth ab Owain who had 
been ousted by his brother Howel in 1 169, Lewelyn, who was 
born about 1 176, commenced his military career at an early 
age,^ and soon secured the devoted support of the Welsh, 
who viewed with dislike and suspicion the close relations 
of Davyd with the English court.'^ He does not appear to 
have come in contact with Richard I., but when John came 
to the throne Lewelyn quickly made peace with the new 
king on terms that gave him a good title, according to 
Norman-English law, to the principality, but which made 
him a feudal vassal. This submission was an act of policy on 

1 See for further details his life in the " Diet. Nat. Biog." 

- Giraldus says that Lewelyn was at the time of his journey twelve years 

old. " Itin. Cambr. ," ii. 8. His partisans were even then asserting his rights. 
•* The chief authorities for Lewelyn's life are of course the " Brut " 

and "Ann. Cambr.," but English sources give us many additional facts. 

Lewelyn's life is dealt with exhaustively by Professor Tout in " Diet. Nat, 

Biog." 



3i6 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

his part. His relations with the king continued friendly for 
several years, and in 1206 he married Joan (the daughter 
of John), who received as her marriage portion Elles- 
inere, which Ovvain ab Davyd had exchanged for lands 
elsewhere. Soon after (1207), John and Lewelyn fought 
against Gwenwynwyn (one of the sons of Ovvain Cyfeiliog), 
a considerable lord in Powys. Lewelyn seized the lands of 
Gwenwynwyn, who was captured by the king, and in the 
same campaign conquered all Keredigion north of the 
Aeron, which was then in the possession of Maelgwn ab 
Rhys. Most of the Welsh barons now acknowledged 
Lewelyn as their immediate superior. The old theory of 
the supremacy of Gwyned was of material help to him in 
his claim to the homage of the Welsh ; but his growing 
power soon e.xcited the jealousy of the most powerful of 
the descendants of the other princeh' families, and the 
attack on Gwenwynwyn and Maelgwn was probably cau.sed 
by their hostile attitude towards the claims of the prince 
of Gwyned. In the ne.xt year there was a quarrel between 
John and Lewelyn. The immediate cause was probably 
the release by the former of Gwenwynwyn, who in 1209 
recovered his lands with the aid of the king. John and his 
son-in-law were never again really friendly. The latter 
appears to have been well-informed as to the cour.se of 
events in England, and to have begun to form relations 
with the barons, who.se discontent with the government was 
day by day increasing. But his position was for a time 
full of difficulty, and even critical. He ravaged the land of 
Chester in 1209, and made very successful attacks on the 
English within his reach. Ranulph, Earl of Chester, 
retaliated, and John himself, with the intention of deposing 
the prince, took the field in 12 10, with a large army. He 
was joined by Gwenwynwyn, Maelgwn, Rhys Grug, and 
other Welsh lords. After some delay, owing seemingly to 
imperfect preparations, John marched right into Gw\'ned. , 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 317 

The combination was too much for ILewelyn. He retreated 
into the mountains, and was obliged to allow John to 
capture Bangor, and to build or restore many castles. 
Ultimately he sued for peace, which, owing to Joan's inter- 
cession, was granted on not unreasonable terms. ILewelyn 
retained the greater portion of Gwyned, but ceded 
Perfedwlad, made large gifts of cattle, and delivered 
hostages. 

Notwithstanding the fact that by allying himself for 
some years with John, and by his marriage, he had seemed 
to be following the same course as Davyd I., the majority 
of the Welsh barons did not lose confidence in him, and 
even the terms on which peace was concluded did not 
alienate his supporters. 

The position of John himself was now fast becoming 
desperate, and the discontent of the English barons was 
soon to become expressed in open rebellion. Lewelyn, 
with true insight, took the popular side, formed friendly 
relations with the disaffected magnates of the English 
realm, and, dropping former feuds, induced Gwen- 
wynwyn, Maelgwn, and others to join forces with him. 
Then, not being able " to brook the many insults done 
to him by the men of the king who had been left in the 
new castle at Aberconway," he renewed the war, and with 
his allies took, in 121 1, all the castles the king had made 
in Gwyned, and also achieved some successes in Powys. 

Hostilities of the same sort being continued in 121 2, 
John became so irritated that he caused twenty-eight 
of the Welsh hostages to be hanged at Nottingham, and 
made hasty preparations for another expedition into Wales. 
Before, however, he could carry out his plans of conquest 
in the west, he discovered the existence of the wide-spread 
conspiracy against him, and was forced to give up the 
design of another Welsh invasion. Owain ab Davyd, how- 
ever, tried to obtain possession of the ceded district of 



3i8 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

Perfedvvlad (which the king had granted him), but 
ignominiously failed, and the four cantrefs were soon 
regained by Lewelyn. 

John's affairs went from bad to worse, and he was 
reduced to asking the aid of his son-in-law, but Lewehni 
was too astute to desert the winning side. By steadily 
acting with the barons he increased his power, and, on 
the triumph of their party, he was able to secure the 
insertion of clauses in the great charter intended to remedy 
the grievances of the Welsh. 

The death of John, the war with Louis, and the general 
confusion in England gave the Welsh prince opportunity 
of pursuing his successes. The Welsh lords of the south 
revolted ; Lewelyn came to their aid, and in 121 5 took 
Carmarthen, demolished the castle of Lanstephan, and 
many others ; marched through Keredigion and obtained 
possession of the castles of Aberystwyth and Cilgerran. 
He was equally successful in the two next }'ears, and 
as a result of his operations became the recognised feudal 
chief of all Wales not in the actual occupation of the lords- 
marchers. Gwenwynwyn alone questioned his position, 
but the prince swiftly expelled him from Powys, and 
though he escaped, he never himself obtained his lands 
again. 

John died in October, 12 16, and was succeeded by his 
infant son, Henry HI. William Marshal, Earl of Pem- 
broke, was made " governor of king and kingdom," and 
after the expulsion of Lewis, [Lewelyn pursuing his usual 
policy did homage to the boy-king at Winchester in 121 8. 
William Marshal died, however, in 1219, and his great 
pos.sessions descended to his son William, the second Earl 
of Pembroke, while the management of English affairs 
passed into the hands of Pandulf, the papal legate, Stephen 
Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Hubert de 
Buiirh. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 319 

For reasons that do not clearly appear, a quarrel took 
place between the new earl and Lewelyn which resulted 
in a private war of some six years' duration. In the earlier 
campaigns the latter was very successful in attacks on 
Dyfed. In 1221, Rhys Gryg, who had submitted to 
Lewelyn, rose and joined the earl, but was defeated by 
the prince, who confiscated his lands and compelled him 
again to do homage. Henry III. made in the same year 
an expedition in the interest of the earl, but with little 
result. William Marshal himself, however, in an encounter 
with the Welsh defeated them with great slaughter. The 
Archbishop of Canterbury excommunicated Lewelyn, and 
placed his lands under an interdict, but his power remained 
unshaken. The king led another army into Wales, but 
without the happening of any decisive operations peace 
was made. In 1223, Lewelyn and the earl attended the 
Council at Ludlow, but their feud was not composed, 
and it was only in 1226, after the prince had met the king 
at Shrewsbury, that some kind of reconciliation was effected 
between them. 

For some years there was peace, but in 1228, for reasons 
which are not clear, war between the prince and the 
English again broke out. Lewelyn kept up his connection 
with many of the disaffected barons of England, and 
probably much of his conduct may be explained by their 
secretly inciting him to embarrass the king and his 
government. Henry III. and the Justiciar marched to 
Montgomery, which the Welsh were attacking. There was 
at least one engagement, but the campaign was not fruitful 
of any important result. The prince quickly made terms. 
He agreed to pay 3,000 marks as compensation, and, with 
other Welsh lords, renewed his homage. 

William de Braose (the heir to the estates of the 
powerful marcher house of de Braose) was, however, 
captured by the Welsh. The prisoner was released in 



320 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

1229 on his paying 3,000 marks, giving his consent to 
the marriage of his daughter Isabella to Davyd, Levvelyn's 
son by Joan, and undertaking not to fight against the 
prince again. It so happened that while in captivity he 
had an intrigue with Joan, which seems to have been 
carried on after he obtained his freedom, and which was 
discovered by the prince. Lewelyn seized William (catch- 
ing him, it is said, in his own chamber), and caused him 
to be publicly hanged. ^ It is strange to find that this 
aiTair did not prevent Davyd's marriage to Isabella, which 
was soon afterwards celebrated. The prince's eldest son, 
GrulTyd, had already shown considerable military capacity, 
but his unruly conduct not only cost him the loss of his 
father's affection, but led to his disgrace and imprisonment 
in 1228, and it was made plain to all that Davyd" was the 
.son whom Lewelyn proposed to designate as his heir. 

In 1231 Lewelyn again invaded the marches, burnt the 
castle of Montgomery, marched to Brecon and Gwent, 
destroying castles and cruelly devastating the districts. 
Avoiding Morganwg, he advanced to Neath and Kidweli, 
and then with the help of some south Welsh lords took 
Cardigan. This brilliant campaign alarmed the English 
government. The spiritual weapons of excommunication 
and interdict were again employed against the prince, and 
Henry once more marched into central Wales, but effected 
nothing decisive. A truce for three years was soon arranged 
on the terms of the suspension of the excommunication and 
interdict. Before, however, the three years had elapsed 
Richard Marshal (who had succeeded William, the prince's 
former enemy, in the Earldom of Pembroke) revolted 
against Henry. Lewelyn did not scruple to join him, and 
after raiding in Gwent and Morganwg besieged Carmarthen, 

' The "Brut," s.a. 1230, says lliat "William Brewys was hanged by 
Llewelyn ah lorwerth, having been caus^ht in the chamber of the prince with 
the Princess Jannelt." 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 321 

but after a prolonged attempt to reduce the castle this 
time failed. In the next year the truce was renewed on 
terms favourable to the Welsh. The prince's active career 
now virtually ended, for though he was not old his health 
was bad, and the direction of affairs soon passed to Davyd. 
Lewelyn was henceforth chiefly concerned with securing 
the succession to his principality for Davyd. He liberated 
Grufifyd from prison after six years' confinement, and again 
acknowledged the king as his feudal over-lord. In 1238 
he convened his Welsh vassals to a meeting at Strata 
Florida, at which they swore fealty to Davyd. Gruffyd 
received lands in Leyn. The prince, having arranged 
his affairs, soon afterwards assumed the monastic habit and 
retired from the world. He died on April iith, 1240, in 
the Cistercian monastery at Aberconway. 

The Welsh accorded to Lewelyn with justice the title 
of Mawr (the Great), and the epithet was recognised as 
appropriate among his Norman-English contemporaries. 
The melancholy fate of his grandson — another Levv^elyn 
— has attracted to the personality of the last Cymric prince 
of Wales popular interest and sentiment to a degree that 
has been somewhat detrimental to the fame of the grand- 
father. There can, however, be no doubt that the latter 
was the most brilliant and capable ruler the Cymry pro- 
duced after the time of Gruffyd ab Lewelyn or Howel Ba — 
perhaps, indeed, the ablest of all the line of Cuneda. He 
saw that the true policy for a Welsh prince of his period 
was to frankly admit the suzerainty of the English king ; 
to devote his energies, not to regaining a shadowy crown 
of Britain, but to protecting the remaining Cymric land 
from encroachment, and preserving the independence of 
his people in internal matters. From the time when he 
obtained a firm hold on Gwyned he steadily pursued this 
course of action, and took his place among the great vassals 
of the realm. While it may have cost him something to 

W.P. Y 



322 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

assume openly a position of formal dependence, he was 
more than repaid by the increase of his real power. Unfor- 
tunately for the Welsh, his successors followed him with 
steps unequal, and the principality which he con.solidated 
and handed on to his son Davyd was destined not long 
afterwards to pass from the line of Cadvvaladr to the 
greatest of the Plantagenet kings. 

For some time before the death of his father, Davyd II. 
had been the real ruler of the principalit}'. The homage 
of the Welsh barons already done in 1238 went a long way 
to ensuring his succession ; but he had taken " time by the 
forelock" in another way, for in the course of 1239 he 
had treacherously seized and imprisoned his half-brother 
GrulTyd with whom he had been long at feud. Imme- 
diately after Lewelyn's death he was recognised as prince, 
again received the submission of the Welsh vassal lords, 
and himself attended at Gloucester, where he did homage 
to Henry, and was knighted. Lewelyn's territories were 
granted to him, and it was agreed between the king and 
him that any matters in dispute should be referred to the 
arbitration of the Papal legate. Otto, who however shortly 
afterwards left the kingdom. The imprisoned Gruffyd' had, 
however, some partisans in Gwyned. Foremost among 
them was Richard, Bishop of Bangor, who excommunicated 
Davyd", and then, either from fear for himself or zeal for 
Gruffytt, hurried to the king, and induced him to take an 
interest in Gruffyd's grievances. In pursuance of the agree- 
ment come to at Gloucester, Davyd was summoned to 
Worcester to arrange for the appointment of arbitrators 
in place of Otto. He took no notice of the summons, 
but fresh arbitrators were chosen, or rather appointed (for 
it does not appear that the prince ever con.sented to the 
new names), and being summoned to Shrewsbury for the 
decision of the question between him and his brother, he 
again neglected the call. Senena, the wife of Gruffyd, was, 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 323 

however, at Shrewsbury pressing her husband's claims, and 
made an arrangement with the king. Quite apart, however, 
from his conduct towards Grufifyd, Davyd, not content 
with strengthening his hold over the lands granted to him, 
had been imprudent enough to receive the homage of 
rebellious royal tenants and to give aid to the enemies 
of Roger Mortimer. Under these circumstances Henry 
decided to make a punitive expedition. " Having assembled 
an army," he advanced towards Gwyned as far as Diserth 
Castle in the Vale of Clwyd. Davyd was either taken 
unprepared or did not think it prudent to engage in war 
and submitted without striking a blow on August 29th, 1241, 
at Alnet, near St. Asaph, and came at once to terms with his 
over-lord. Under the arrangement made, the unfortunate 
Gruffyd was transferred to the king ; the Welsh prince 
agreed to submit the quarrel between him and his brother 
to the king's court, to give up Mold to the seneschal of 
Chester, to yield up to Gruffyd ab Gwenwynwyn his lands 
in Povvys, and to concede to other Welsh lords their claims 
to parts of Meirionyd. He was ordered to attend the court 
in London, and went there in October. During his visit a 
further agreement was forced on him by the king's govern- 
ment by which it was stipulated that the principality should 
be surrendered to the English crown if he died without heirs 
of his body. 

Davyd returned to North Wales, and the next two 
years were years of peace. Gruffyd was kept a prisoner 
in London. The English court had readily enough used 
his claims and grievances as weapons to justify inter- 
ference with Davyd ; but when they had attained their 
object it was seen that his release would only mean more 
trouble in the west. He was therefore detained, and no 
steps were taken to bring on his cause before the king's 
court. He had been taken to London and confined in the 
Tower, where he was well treated. In 1244, having no 

Y 2 



324 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

doubt come to the conclusion that he could not count on 
redress from the king, he tried to escape by means of a rope, 
but fell in the attempt and broke his neck. Probably 
relieved by his brother's death from fear of internal dis- 
affection, and influenced b}^ the desire to repair a repu- 
tation damaged among subjects ever eager for war by his 
hasty conclusion of peace with the king, Davyd, instead of 
waiting till the discontent of England with the despotic but 
weak personal government of Henry had burst into flame, 
took overt steps which showed that he did not intend to 
regard the obligations into which he had entered.^ He 
summoned in 1244 all the Welsh lords to join him — appa- 
rently to do homage with a view to a general rising. All 
obeyed except three, who were promptly assailed and com- 
pelled to submit. Davyd not being able to secure allies 
among the English, and conscious of his inability single- 
handed to shake off the control of the English government, 
intrigued with the Papal court, and appears to have offered 
to submit the questions between him and the king to the 
judgment of commissioners appointed by the then Pope. 
But though the Pope did nominate two abbots as arbitrators 
Henry would have nothing to do with them ; and Innocent 
IV. on further representations cancelled the commission. 

Border warfare continued into 1245. The Welsh sus- 
tained a considerable defeat at Montgomery, but Davyd 
retook Mold. 

Henry then maae preparations for another invasion of 
Wales. With a sufficient army he advanced to Deganwy, 
while M6n was ravaged by a force from Ireland. The 
Welsh prince avoided a decisive engagement, and was com- 
pelled to retire in the usual way to the mountains of 
Snowdon. There he awaited the development of events. 

' " Brut,'' s.a. 1244, after recounting Grutt'yCl's death, abruptly says Davytt 
"became enraged and summoned, &c.," but his anger was surely not^ caused 
by the removal of one who was at once an enemy and a rival. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 325 

Henry was not able to follow the enemy into the moun- 
tains. When winter came his army fell short of supplies, 
and he had to retire without having obtained the submis- 
sion of Davyd ; but he strengthened Deganwy, and in the 
campaign inflicted much loss on the Welsh. The prince's 
plans were cut short by his death in March, 1246. 

Davyd II. died without issue ; but Gruffyd had left three 
sons, Owain Goch (who had shared his captivity for a time, 
but had been released and received into favour by the 
king), Lewelyn (who it is said had already been occupying 
parts of Perfedwlad in defiance alike of his uncle Davyd 
and the English authorities),^ and Davyd (destined to be 
the last reigning prince of his line). Ignoring the agree- 
ment of 1 241, by which the principality was to pass to the 
English crown in case Davyd II. should die without issue, 
Owain and Lewelyn, with the consent of the Welsh 
barons, assumed the sovereignty, and divided the posses- 
sions of their house (making provision for their younger 
brother Davyd). They were at once treated as rebels. 
Nicholas de Myles, seneschal of Carmarthen, seized the 
lordships in the south that were appurtenant to Gwyned^, 
and promptly marched to the north as far as Deganwy. 
Owain and Lewelyn retreated to the mountains. The 
king, not wishing at the moment to push things to extre- 
mities, did not insist on the exact terms of the bargain 
with the late prince. An understanding was arrived at 
between him and the princes, in pursuance of which they 
did homage to him at Woodstock in 1247. A treaty was 
thereupon signed by which Henry pardoned their rebellion, 
retained all Welsh land east of the Conway, as well as the 
southern districts which had been occupied by De Myles 
(except a part allotted to Maelgwn Vychan), but conferred 
on them the residue of the principality. 

' Warrington's " Hisloiy," p. 428, citing Wynne's " History of the Gwydir 
Family," p. 28. 



326 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

For several years the settlement of 1247 was loyally 
adhered to, and there was a period of unwonted peace, 
durhig which Lewelyn steadily increased his influence, and 
attracted to himself the devoted attachment and the still 
retained hopes of the Welsh. It was probably owing to 
the jealousy roused by his growing popularity that in 1254 
his brothers Owain and Davyd quarrelled with and took 
up arms against him. Lewelyn and his men confidentl)' 
awaited the " cruel coming " ^ of the rebels at Bryn Derwin, 
where after a brief engagement the latter were decisively 
beaten. Owain was captured, thrown into prison, and kept 
in confinement for many years, but Davyd escaped to 
England to work much mischief against his brother and 
the cause of the Welsh. Lewelyn took possession of their 
lands, and on the death of Maredud ab Lewelyn, one of 
his vassal barons, .seized Meirionyd. This last act estranged 
Gruffyd ab Gwenwynwyn, lord of the neighbouring cymwd 
of Cyfeiliog, and induced him to ally himself to the 
English. 

While matters were in this position in Wales an event 
which had a direct effect on the fortunes of Gwyned took 
place. Edward, the eldest son of Henry IIL, was married 
to Eleanor, daughter of Ferdinand the Saint, in October, 
1254, and the king, as part of the provision made for his 
son, conferred on him the earldom of Chester and all his 
lands in Wales. 

We have pointed out above the exceptional position of 
the county of Chester. From the time of William L it had 
been a practically independent state. It was now the 
strongest and most valuable of all the lordships in the 
marches of Wales. By becoming Earl of Chester the heir 
to the English crown came directl)' into contact with 
Welsh affairs. The vague grant of the king's lands in 
Wales included the four cantrefs of Perfedwlad, and 

1 " Brut," s.a. 1254. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 327 

three lordships in the south that, though not without 
intermission, had been in the possession of the EngHsh 
crown for many years.^ Edward and his wife came 
to England in 1255. Boy though he was — being only 
sixteen — Edward took some part in the administration 
of his possessions in the west, though the real government 
was no doubt left to ministers, who were arbitrary and 
often unjust in their treatment of the Welsh tenants in the 
earl's lands. Their conduct after Edward's assumption of 
his earldom gave rise to great irritation in the four cantrefs 
and the other parts of Wales in his jurisdiction. In the 
course of 1255 a survey was made by his officers or those of 
the king on his behalf of his castles and lands in Gwyned ; 
steps were taken to annex the four cantrefs to the county of 
Chester ; while the earl's deputy, Geoffrey Langton, consti- 
tuted three parts of Keredigion and the lands attached to 
or held with the castle of Carmaithen into shire-ground, 
with an organisation similar to that of the English shires. 
The Welsh tenants, seeing clearly enough that the effect 
of these measures would be the introduction of Norman- 
English law and the suppression of customs to which 
they were attached, not only because of their substantial 
consonance with their ideas of justice, but also because 
their use was a symbol of practical independence. The 
smaller Welsh barons, as well as their tenants, looked on 
the action of Edward's officers in a very different way from 
that in which they regarded a change of prince or lord. It 
mattered little to them whether their superior lord or prince 
did homage to the king of England or any one else, so long as 
the incidents of tenure remained the same. The changes now 
made, as they instantly saw, might, and probably would, be 
detrimental to them from a pecuniary point of view, and 

* Thus practically all the areas that are now Flintshire and Denbighshire, 
and large parts of the present Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire passed to 
Edward. 



328 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

tend to their having to endure new burdens. But apart 
from mere fears of the consequences of the changes 
attempted, the Welsh of the districts in question had also 
reason to complain of much actual injustice to individuals, 
of illegal imprisonment, violent evictions, and oppression in 
every possible form at the hands of the English local 
authorities. 

In their distress, the Welsh now turned to Lewelyn, and 
besought him to come to their assistance. Moved, it is 
said, b}' their tears,^ he determined to make an effort to 
regain the territories he had lost in consequence of his 
former rebellion. He took the field in 1256, and for about 
eleven years there was almost continuous warfare between 
him and the English — warfare that was ended by the peace 
of 1267. 

Once determined on a fresh war, Lewelyn acted with 
vigour and promptitude. In the autumn of 1256 he 
suddenly invaded Perfedwlad. His forces, no doubt 
received with gladness by the inhabitants, subdued it 
within a week ; but the castles of Diserth and Deganwy 
remained in the hands of Edward's officers. Lewelyn 
then turned south, overran the parts of Keredigion that 
had been lately made shire-ground, and also took the can- 
tref of Buaitt in Powys, which belonged to the Mortimers. 
He did not, however, keep these conquests in his own 
possession ; but, desirous of attaching the Cymric lords of 
the south, and through them the Welsh-speaking tenants 
of the Norman- English lords-marchers to himself, granted 
them to Maredud ab Owain, who was a liescendant of 
Rhys ab Teudwr, and therefore represented the ancient 
princely line of Deheubarth, and restored to Maredud ab 
Rhys Gryg lands from which the latter had been ousted by 
his nephew, RhysVychan ab Rhys Mech\'ii. The new Earl 
of Chester had no force at his disposal adequate for an attack 

' '' Brat," s.a. 1255. 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 329 

upon the victorious Lewelyn. He appealed to his father, 
but, for the moment, in vain, and the Welsh prince, in his next 
campaign (1257), expelled Roger Mortimer from the cymwd 
of Gwrthryn in Povvys, and Gruffyd ab Gwenwynwyn 
(who still remained aloof from the Welsh cause) from 
Cyfeiliog. Lewelyn, actively helped by his allies, ravaged 
a large part of South Wales, taking and burning many 
castles that were in English hands. Henry, in the summer 
of the same year, came to his son's assistance, and, with a 
considerable force, reached Deganwy, but did not cross the 
Conway. The king remained there for several weeks, but 
no engagement of importance took place, and the English 
army retired, after having effected nothing that altered the 
situation in a material degree in favour of Edward ; and in 
1258 a truce for a year was concluded between Lewelyn 
and Henry on the terms that the latter should have free 
communication with Deganwy, and the former remain in 
possession of the four cantrefs. The fame of Lewelyn was 
now spreading far, for he was able to effect an alliance with 
the Scotch nobles against the king, and to enter into friendly 
relations with the English barons, whose discontent with 
the tyrannical and yet weak government of Henry was now 
coming to a head. 

Lewelyn's military career and domestic rule had been so 
successful that now nearly all the Welsh barons openly 
took their stand on his side, and at a formal assembly a 
large number of the nobles of Wales took oaths of fealty 
to him.' 

It was a fortunate circumstance for Lewelyn that 
the long-smouldering resentment of the English people 
against Henry and his practicall)' foreign ministr)' burst 

' MareduTtab Rhys, though he was indebted to Lewelyn for liis restoration 
to his estates, and tliough he had taken the oath, intrigued with the Seneschal 
of Carmarthen — De Sayes ; but he was quickly atlncked and captured, and his 
castle of Dinevwr seized. 



330 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

into open revolt, and resulted in the Provisions of Oxford, 
the rule of Simon de Montfort, and civil war. In the 
troubled condition of things in England the war against 
Wales was not prosecuted with any vigour. Notwith- 
standing the truce, Lewelyn, in 1259 and 1260, made 
some border raids, justifying himself on the ground that its 
conditions were not observed by the English ; but peace was 
substantially preserved till 1262, when he took the offensive 
in earnest. This time he began by attacking Roger Morti- 
mer, one of the principal lords-marchers in the cantref of 
Maelienyd, and then seized several castles in that region. The 
Welsh inhabitants of the cantref did homage to him, and he 
pressed on to Brecheiniog, and, having received the submis- 
sion of the people there, returned to Gwyned. This bold 
incursion, which was probably made m concert with the 
disaffected English barons, caused general alarm in the 
west and a speedy renewal of operations in the marches. 
Edward, with such a force as he could command, early in 
1263 advanced into Wales, but his campaign was fruitless ; 
and the breaking out of actual civil war between the barons, 
headed by Simon de Montfort, and the king, made it 
impossible for him to give attention to Welsh affairs. 
Lewelyn, just as his grandfather had done many years 
before, threw himself on the side of the barons, and formed 
a close alliance with Simon de Montfort, who promised him 
his daughter Eleanor in marriage. 

The disputes between the king and the barons were 
referred for settlement to St. Louis, king of France, who 
decided in favour of Henry III., and annulled the 
Provisions of Oxford. The Earl of Leicester repudiated 
the award of the French king, and took up arms again. 
The events of 1 264 and 1 265 are too well known to need 
retelling here. The battle and Mise of Lewes made 
Simon de Montfort the real ruler of the realm for the 
time. Edward was taken prisoner. A new constitution 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 331 

was drawn up. The celebrated Parliament of 1265 was 
convened and met. The earldom of Chester was assigned 
to Simon, who early in the year 1265 proceeded to the 
marches, which were now well under the control of 
Lewelyn and his allies. In 1263, seizing the occasion 
afforded by the commencement of the barons' wars in 
England, Lewelyn had again overrun Perfedvvlad, and 
this time had succeeded in taking the castles of Diserth 
and Deganwy, which had so long resisted his attempts. 
His position was now very strong in Wales, and even his 
former enemy, Gruffyd ab Gwenwynwyn, came over to his 
side and did homage ; but just as the principal Welsh lord 
in Powys submitted, Lewelyn had to deal with a fresh 
revolt by his brother Davyd. The rebellion was at once 
suppressed, and Davyd himself was forced to take refuge 
again in England. The incident in no way weakened 
the prince, who continued to act with, and give powerful 
support to, the Earl of Leicester and his party. Simon 
rewarded Lewelyn for his services by forcing the king to 
sign a convention, which conferred on the Welsh prince 
large territories (including even Maud's Castle, Hawarden, 
Ellesmere, and Montgomery), and formally granted him 
the principality with the right of receiving the homage of 
the Welsh barons.^ 

Fortune, however, soon deserted the great earl. On 
August 4th, 1265, he was defeated and slain by Edward 
at the battle of Evesham. The loss was very great to 
Lewelyn, but he continued the war, and in September 
made an inroad into Chester, which had been restored 
to Edward ; but, notwithstanding the Welsh efforts 
and the prolonged resistance of the remainder of the 
baronial party in England, its cause was now lost, and 
shortly after the surrender of Kenilworth there was a 
general submission by the barons to the king and Edward. 

1 Rymer's " Foedera, " i. 457. 



332 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

Lewelyn had formed an alliance with Gilbert de Clare, 
Earl of Gloucester, but the latter made peace with the 
king, and by the intervention of the papal legate, Ottobon, 
terms were also arranged between Lewelyn and Edward, 
which were so favourable to the former as to amount to a 
real triumph for the Welsh nation. By a treaty concluded 
at Montgomery, the king granted the principality to 
Lewelyn and his heirs, to be held on the terms of doing 
homage ; Lewelyn was authorised to receive the homage 
of all the Welsh barons (except that of Maredud ab Rhys, 
the representative of the old line of South Welsh princes, 
which the king reserved to himself and his heirs) ; the 
limits of the principality were defined in a way liberal 
towards the Welsh prince ; the four cantrefs of Perfedwlad 
were granted to him ; and Davyd was restored to the 
lands he had possessed, but Lewelyn was to pay 24,000 
marks b)- wa}' of indemnity. The treaty was ratified b}- 
papal authority. Practically it left to Edward no part of 
his Welsh estates except Carmarthen and its appurtenant 
lands. 

It is useless to speculate on what might have happened if 
Lewelyn had thenceforth adhered faithfull)' to the terms of 
this treaty, and reinstated the far-seeing yet practical policy 
of his p-randfather, which was concentrated on the mainten- 
ance of Gwyned as a separate entity among the great lord- 
ships or feudal states of the realm, and frankl\' based a 
position of vassalage under the English crown ; but one can 
hardly help thinking, when one looks back on the uncertain and 
devious devolution of the English kingship, that if Lewelyn 
ab Gruffyd had abided by the terms of the treaty, thrown 
over the De Montforts and their friends, and steadily allied 
himself to Edward, the crown of Britain might have been 
regained b)- a descendant of his house before the time at 
which a Welsh prince, in the person of Henry VII., became 
king of England. Things, however, turned out quite 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 12S2. 333 

otherwise. Lewelyn not only continued on friendly 
relations with the sons of Simon, but intrigued with them 
against Henry. He did not understand the trend of events 
in England, and seems to have looked upon the treaty of 
Montgomery, not as marking the limit for a time of a 
prudent ambition, but as the immediate stepping-stone 
to the realisation of dreams of conquest, which were 
encouraged by the recollection of prophecies supposed to 
be ancient and continually fostered by the flattery of those 
around him, especially of the bards, to whom the somewhat 
backward conditions of life in North Wales still allowed 
an influence which was highly pernicious in practical 
concerns. 

Till the death of Henry HI. in 1272, Lewelyn did 
nothing overt to give offence. Peace was fairly well kept 
on the borders, there was internal repose, and no dispute 
with the English central authority. Edward (who had 
taken the cross in 1268, and had gone to the East to join 
in a crusade) was, when his father died in 1272, still abroad, 
but he was proclaimed king at Westminster without oppo- 
sition, and the government carried on by the Archbishop 
of York, Edmund of Cornwall, and others, on his behalf 
Lewelyn did not attend the assembly of the magnates of 
the kingdom at Westminster, and the regents having 
appointed a commission to receive his homage, sum- 
moned him on the 29th November, 1272, to render his 
service ; but the Welsh prince took no notice of the 
message. 

It is clear he was continuing negotiations with the sons 
of Simon de Montfort, and he was probably encouraged by 
some of the English barons to resist Edward. In 1273 he 
was betrothed to Eleanor de Montfort, the late earl's only 
daughter, in accordance with the promise made some years 
before. He also entered into communication with the 
Roman court, and obtained from Gregory X. a decree 



334 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vri.) 

absolving him from obedience to citations to places 
outside Wales. 

Lewelyn was now called upon to meet an internal 
revolt. Davyd entered into a conspiracy with Gruffyd 
ab Gwenwynwyn and others against his brother. The 
prince, however, was able at once to seize the lands of the 
rebels. Davyd and Gruffyd fled to England, but Owain 
was captured. The fugitives seem to have been well 
received by the king, and Lewelyn found in that circum- 
stance another reason for neglecting to perform his duty 
as vassal, ignored all messages, and finally openly defied 
his over-lord. Edward I. was crowned on August the i8th, 
1274, but though Alexander III. of Scotland attended the 
ceremony and did homage, Lewelyn was conspicuous by 
his absence, and still delayed to make his submission. 
Edward determined to compel him to submit, and pro- 
ceeding to Chester, summoned his recalcitrant vassal to 
come to him there. Lewelyn convened his own vassals, 
and took counsel with them. In accort'ance with the 
general assent of the Welsh barons, he refused to comply 
with Edward's command on the ground that the latter had 
committed a breach of the mutual feudal obligations by 
harbouring his enemies, Davyd ab Gruffyd and Gruffyd ab 
Gwenwynwyn. Edward returned to England in anger. 
The De Montforts still kept up a connection with some 
of the English barons as well as with the prince, and it 
looks as if the action of the latter was taken in contem- 
plation of some combined action. Edward, however, 
checked any movement in England by proclaiming a full 
pardon to the survivors of the barons who had sided with 
Simon in the recent war. It was about this time that 
Eleanor de Montfort, under the escort of her brother 
Amaury, sailed for Gwyned to marry Lewelyn ; but the 
vessels of her party were captured by some Bristol sailors. 
Amaury was thrown into prison,. and Edward, meanly and 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 335 

unchivalrously, caused Eleanor to be detained in captivity 
as one of the queen's household. Lewelyn sent many 
xnessages to the king with the view of obtaining the release 
of his bride and forming a durable peace ; but they were 
fruitless, for Edward was greatly incensed at what he 
deemed the prince's faithless and shifty conduct. The 
latter found the only terms on which Edward would set 
Eleanor at liberty too hard to be entertained. Border 
hostilities took place in 1276, and in November of that 
year Edward formally declared war against Lewelyn, and 
summoned his army to Worcester. He divided his whole 
forces into three armies. The first, led by himself (with 
whom served Davyd), entered Wales from Chester, while 
the fleet co-operated by sailing along the coast with the 
ultimate object of cutting off supplies for the Welsh from 
Mon. The second, under the command of Hugh de Lacy 
and Roger Mortimer, advanced from Shrewsbury to Mont- 
gomery, while the Earl of Hereford retook possession of 
Brecheiniog. The third, under Edmund of Lancaster, 
invaded the district of the south occupied by the vassals 
or allies of Lewelyn. Most of the South-Welsh barons 
speedily deserted and made submission to the king. 

Lewelyn was obliged to abandon the south and confine 
his efforts to the defence of Gwyned by the usual tactics. 
But Edward had made his plans carefully ; he advanced 
cautiously, causing ways to be cut through the forests, and 
gradually forced Lewelyn, who did not venture on a 
pitched battle, to the mountainous districts of Snowdon. 
Blockaded there, surrounded on all sides by the enemy, 
deprived of provisions from Mon, Lewelyn, though he 
struggled long, was, when winter came, starved into sub- 
mission and compelled to make peace on terms which were 
dictated by Edward, and embodied in the Treaty of Conway. 

This treaty, in effect, completely undid the work of 1267, 
and reduced Lewelyn to the position of a petty baron. He 



336 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

agreed to pay 50,000 marks as a fine or indemnity, and to 
surrender all prisoners ; the four cantrefs and his former 
South- Welsh estates were to go to the king ; Mon, of which 
Edward was in possession, was granted to him at a yearly 
rent of 1,000 marks, but was to revert to the Crown on his 
death without heirs ; the homage of the Welsh barons 
(except the five barons of Snowdon) was transferred from 
him to the king. Provision was made for Davyd by a 
grant of land in Perfedwlad. Owain Goch, who had so far 
as we can find been in captivity since 1 256, was released and 
given territory in Leyn. The adherents of the king in 
Wales were restored to the lands they had possessed before 
the war. Lewelyn was to come to London on a day to be 
appointed to do homage, and to attend in England every 
Christmas to renew that act of submission. On the other 
hand, it was stipulated that outside the four cantrefs justice 
should be administered according to the laws and customs 
of the districts in which the lands might lie ; that all 
tenants holding lands in the four cantrefs and other Welsh 
places in the king's possession should possess them as freely 
and enjoy the same customs and liberties as they did before 
the wars ; and that disputes between the prince himself and 
other persons were to be decided according to the law of 
the marches. The complete failure of the war and the con- 
clusion of peace on these terms amounted to the ruin of the 
house of Gwyned, though an attempt, and as it proved a 
last attempt, was made by Lewelyn to recover the ground 
he had lost. 

Edward, having shown his power, did not e.xact full 
performance of the treaty. He remitted the fine, and 
returned the hostages delivered by the prince. Lewelyn did 
homage at Rhudlan, and went to London at Christmas 
when the ceremon}- was repeated. His promised wife was 
still at court, and his conduct at this time was, no doubt, 
very largely determined b\' the natural desire that her 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 337 

marriage to him should take place, and by the belief that 
close connection with the family of the great earl would 
strengthen him in an effort to recover the authority and 
territories he had lost. Whatever his motives, he behaved 
with such conciliatory prudence that in 1278, on the 
occasion of his going to Worcester to renew his submission, 
the king allowed the wedding to take place. Lewelyn and 
Eleanor were married " at the door of the great church '' 
there in the presence of Edward and his court, and next 
day "joyfully returned"^ to Wales. The union thus formed 
did not, however, last long. Eleanor died in childbirth in 
1280, leaving a daughter, GwenHian, surviving. The loss of 
his wife tended to estrange Lewelyn from the English 
court, and made him more ready to listen to the complaints 
of the Welsh against the tyranny of the king's officers, but 
it was not until the spring of 1282 that there was again a 
formal rupture of the peace. 

After taking possession of the districts ceded by the 
treaty of 1277, Edward vigorously proceeded with the con- 
version of Perfedwlad into shire-ground, and renewed the 
county organisations of Cardigan and Carmarthen, which 
had been first created many years before. Many of the 
castles which had been built in the early days of the 
Norman invasion were strengthened or erected anew on a 
larger and more formidable scale. These proceedings 
caused general alarm and indignation among the Welsh of 
the four cantrefs and the southern counties. They soon 
saw that the new system in effect involved the substitution 
of Norman- English laws for the Welsh customs, which by 
the treaty were to be retained in regard to the lands of 
the Welsh inhabitants. In any case the immediate change 
from one system to another, however gently brought about, 
would have caused some loss or injury to individuals ; but 
the conduct of the king's subordinates was such as to 

1 " Brut," s.a. 1278. 
W.P. Z 



338 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

aggravate very greatly the ills sustained by the Welsh. 
The royal officers were not only violent and arbitrary in 
their dealings with Welsh holders of land, but also grossl)- 
extortionate and corrupt, while the provisions inserted in 
the treaty for the protection of the latter were ignored. 
Whatever allowance may be made for Edward on the score 
of his being badly served, or of the acts of his officers being 
unauthorised, he was guilty of bad faith, for when com- 
plaints were made to him, he declared that he would main- 
tain the Welsh laws only so far as they were good. In 
fact, he had determined to impose English laws in the 
ceded lands without regard to the treaty. Lewelyn, too, 
had grievances of his own. Thus- he laid claim to some 
land in Arwystli, and brought the. ca.se before the king's 
court at Rhudlan. According to the treaty (so the prince 
contended) the matter should have been tried and decided 
according to the Welsh law, but it was, in fact, dealt with 
according to the Norman-English procedure. Davyd also 
had complaints to make against the authorities in 
Perfedwlad. The anger and resentment kindled first 
among the Welsh outside the remnant of the principality 
left in the possession of Lewelyn quickly spread among his 
own subjects and the whole Welsh-speaking people. It 
was felt by all that another effort to secure independence 
ought to be made ; but the independence now sought for 
was not the severing of all ties with the English king, but 
freedom to carry on their affairs in accordance with their 
own conceptions of right. Just as the English clamoured 
for the laws of Edward the Confessor, the Welsh national 
demands focussed themselves into a claim that the laws of 
Howel Da should be maintained, and into resistance to the 
innovations of the luiglish government. The movement in 
favour of revolt rapidly spread in 1281. A reconciliation 
was effected between Lewelyn and his brother Davyd, and 
the latter agreed with him never again to .serve under the 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 339 

English king. An understanding was also arrived at between 
the prince and the aggrieved barons of the south, and from 
what subsequently took place we may infer that a general 
insurrection was planned. 

The rising was commenced by Davyd, who, on the eve 
of Palm Sunday, 1282, suddenly attacked and took 
Hawarden Castle and captured Roger Clifford the Justiciar. 
Lewelyn at once crossed the Conway, ravaged the country 
up to Chester itself, and besieged Rhudlan and Flint. 
Almost simultaneously, the chiefs among the southern 
barons, Gruffyd ab Maredud and Rhys ab Maelgwn, rose 
and took Aberystwyth, burnt the castle, and destroyed 
the rampart that had been made round the town. Edward, 
profoundly angered by the news from Wales, made very 
extensive preparations for the final subjugation of the 
principality. The events that had just happened left 
Edward no option but to invade it again, and we cannot 
blame him for taking that course. Yet the outbreak of 
a fresh rebellion at a time and under circumstances which 
(as the better informed of the Welsh leaders must have 
known) made its success impossible shows not only that 
the Welsh grievances were real and hard to be borne, 
but that Edward had neglected to make adequate inquiry 
about them, and to exercise efficient control over his local 
ministers. He made no attempt to negotiate, unless indeed 
it was by his desire that the Archbishop of Canterbury 
(Peckham) tried to effect a peaceful settlement. Either 
acting under the direction of the king or simply in his 
own episcopal capacity he visited North Wales, and 
having addressed a letter to the prince, met and con- 
ferred with him and his council. Lewelyn laid before 
him a written answer to his letter on behalf of himself 
and his people, adding particulars of " the greefes " of 
Davyd and other barons, and of the men of Rhos and 
other districts. The written complaints of the Welsh were 

Z 2 



340 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

taken by Peckham to the king, who, though he did not 
categorically refuse to hear the Welsh complainants, made 
unconditional submission a preliminary step to investigating 
the matters in dispute, for he would promise to those who 
might come to him liberty to return to Wales only if " by 
justice they deserved to depart." The archbishop again 
went to Wales and saw Lewelyn, who resolutely refused 
to place himself at the king's mercy. Returning to Eng- 
land he reported what had taken place, and Edward steml\- 
said he wanted no other treaty of peace than that the 
prince and his people should simply submit themselves. 
Such a submission was demanded in a message to Lewelyn 
and his council, which was, however, accompanied by secret 
offers to the prince of an estate worth ;^i,ooo a year in 
England, and to Davyd of adequate provision according 
to his degree. The Welsh princes declined both the open 
and the private terms of accommodation suggested to them, 
and in a dignified and touching epistle to the archbishop 
explained that they dare not trust to the king, as he had 
kept " neither oath nor covenant nor grant by charter," 
and in effect expressed their determination to defend their 
rights at all hazards. 

Finding that his friendly negotiations had failed, the 
archbishop excommunicated Lewelyn. Edward, fully 
prepared, marched into Gwyned", repeated the tactics of 
1277 with a similar result, and having occupied M6n, com- 
pelled the Welsh to retreat into the mountainous district 
of Snowdon, though not without sustaining considerable 
losses. In the south, the Earl of Gloucester and Sir 
Edmund Mortimer advanced against the Welsh force, 
under the command of Gruffyd ab Maredud and his friends, 
and met and defeated it at Landeilo Fawr. Lewelyn, 
remembering his fate in the last war, left Davyd to defend 
himself in the north, and himself, with a small body of 
men, escaped, in the hope of securing fresh adherents, 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 341 

encouraging the Welsh in the marches, and of effecting 
some kind of diversion. He passed through and ravaged 
Cardigan and the estate of Rhys ab Maredud, who was 
serving with the king. He then proceeded into the valley 
of the Wye, apparently with the intention of inducing 
the Welsh of southern Powys to join him when the winter 
was further advanced in an attempt to cut off Edward's 
communications with Chester ; but he was met not far from 
Buattt Castle by Mortimer, who was lord of the cantref, 
and an engagement took place on December loth, in which 
the small Welsh force was beaten. Lewelyn was killed by 
Adam de Francton on the same day, but whether in the 
actual battle or while waiting unattended for the coming 
of some of the Welsh barons of the country with whom he 
had made a secret appointment is not certain. His head 
was sent to Edward, and was afterwards exhibited in 
London, encircled with a crown of ivy in mocking allusion 
to a prophecy current among the Welsh that he should 
be crowned there. He is usually regarded as the last 
Cymric Prince of Wales, and this popular view is sub- 
stantially true, for he was the last lineal descendant of 
Rhodri Mawr, who ruled over the whole, or nearly the 
whole, of the ancient kingdom of Gwyned ; but technically 
Davyd HI. must be accorded the melancholy honour. 
Left, as we have seen, in command in Snowdon on his 
brother's death, he was acknowledged by the Welsh barons 
as their prince. For a time he held out, but he was soon 
obliged to conceal himself in the recesses of the mountains, 
and after some months was betrayed into the king's hands. 
He was imprisoned at Rhudlan Castle ; the other Welsh 
barons surrendered, and the whole of Wales and the marches 
was soon reduced to subjection. The king determined to 
make an example of Davyd, who was tried as a baron 
of England by a Parliament held at Shrewsbury, and, 
having been convicted, was, on October 3rd, 1283, hanged, 



342 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

drawn, and quartered.^ Edward's brutal treatment of the 
remains of Lewelyn (who, though a rebel according to the 
law of the king's realm, was slain in honourable war), and 
his utter want of magnanimity in dealing with Davyd", 
were long remembered among the Cymry, and helped 
to keep alive the hatred with which the Welsh-speaking 
people for several centuries more regarded the English. 

We deal in the next chapter with Edward's settlement 
of Welsh affairs and his organisation of the principality. 
The possessions of the Cymric house of Gwyned were not 
simply added to England. The principality was still 
maintained, but annexed to the English Crown. During 
the time Edward resided in Wales two sons were born 
unto him. The younger one, Edward of Carnarvon (who 
became his successor as Edward II.), was in 1301 created 
Prince of Wales, and it became the custom for the kin"- 
of England to grant the principality to the heir to the 
Crown with a special limitation which made it appurtenant 
to the rightful succession to the throne. 

But though the principality survived in a new form, and 
under new rules, all was now over with the last of the 
princely Cymric lines. Lewelyn and his brothers were 
the representatives of one of the very oldest reigning 
families of western Europe — one that could trace its origin 
to the time when Britain still formed part of the Roman 
Empire, and which had with some brief intervals ruled 
in Gwyned for nearly nine hundred years. Lewelyn's 
daughter, Gweniiian, lived on, was brought up in a convent, 
and ultimately took the veil, it is said, against her will. 
She was his onl}^ child legitimate according to English law, 

' For full details as to their careers see the excellent lives of Lewelyn and 
Davyd in " Diet. Nat. Biog. ," by Professor Tout. Lygad Gwr wrote a long 
ode to Lewelyn not long after the prince's success of 1267 (Stephens' " Lit. of 
the Kymry," 2nd edition, p. 346) ; and Blecfyn Vard and Gruflyft ab yr Ynad 
Coch wrote elegies upon him. (Ibid., pp. 365, 368.) 



HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 343 

but there is little doubt the Madog who led a vigorous 
insurrection in 1294, which was put down in the following 
year, was his son.^ DavyS left sons surviving him, and Owain 
Goch perhaps did so, but so far as we know none of the 
descendants of the three brothers, except Madog, played a 
noticeable part in political or military affairs, unless a dis- 
tinguished soldier called Owain Lawgoch, with whom Welsh 
literature and the pages of Froissart make us acquainted, 
may be counted, as seems to us not unlikely, among them ; ^ 
for neither Owairi Glyndwr nor Henry VII. could substan- 
tiate a claim to anything more than a remote and indirect 
connection with the cenedl of Lewelyn ab lorwerth. In the 
Record of Carnarvon we find that, at a court held at 
Conway in the 44th year of Edward III., a certain Griffid 
Says was adjudged to forfeit all his lands which he held in 
Anglesey of the Prince of Wales (that is, Edward the Black 
Prince) for the reason that he had been an adherent of 
Owain Lawgoch.'" This shows that Owain Lawgoch was 
a real man, and it so happens that one Yewaines, levains 
or Yvain de Galles {i.e., Owain of Wales) was fighting on 
the French side against the English in Edward's con- 
tinental wars. Froissart has a good deal to say about him, 
for he distinguished himself very greatly on several critical 
occasions. From the French chronicler's account * we learn 
that the king of England (Edward III.) had slain Owain's 
father, and given his lordship and principality to his own 
-son, the Prince of Wales. The name of the father is given 
as Aymon, which is regarded as equivalent to Edmond, but 
may be Einion. Owain escaped to the court of Philip VI., 
who received him with favour, and had him educated with 
his own nephews. He was engaged at Poictiers in 1356, 

' See under "Madog," Diet. Nat. Biog. 

- See below, p. 593. Owain Lawgoch means Owain "of the red hand." 
^ The words are : — " Adherens fuisset Owino Lawgoch inimico et proditor 
praedicti Domini Principis et de consilio." Record of Carnarvon, p. 133. 
■• See " Chroniques de J. Froissart," i., cc. 306-7, 311 ; ii., cc. 6, 17. 



344 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vii.) 

and when peace was made he went to serve in Lombardy, 
but returned on the breaking out of war again between 
France and England. He sometimes fought on sea and 
sometimes on land, but he was always entrusted by the 
French king (by this time Charles V.) with important 
commands. Thus, in 1372, he was placed at the head 
of a flotilla, with 3,000 men under him, and ordered to 
operate by sea against the English ; he made a descent on 
Guernsey, and while besieging the castle of Cornet there he 
was charged by the king to go to Spain to invite the king 
of Castile again to send his fleet to help in the attack on 
La Rochelle. Whilst staying at Santander, the Earl of 
Pembroke was brought thither to him, having been taken 
prisoner in the course of the destruction of the English 
fleet in 1272. Owain, seeing the earl, asked him if he had 
come to do him homage for his land which he had taken 
possession of in Wales, and threatened to avenge himself 
on him as soon as he could, and also on the Earl of 
Hereford and Edward Spenser, for it was by the fathers 
of these three men that, as he said, his own father had 
been betrayed to death. Owain survived the Black Prince 
and Edward HI., and was actively engaged in besieging 
Mortagne-sur-Mer, in Poitou, when he was assassinated 
by one Lamb, who had insinuated himself into his service 
and confidence by pretending to bring news from his native 
land, and telling him that all Wales was longing to have 
him back to be lord of the country (" et lui fist a croire 
que toute la terre de Gales le desiroient mout a ravoir a 
seigneur"). So Owain fell in 1378, and was buried in the 
church at St. Leger, and Lamb returned to the P^nglish 
to receive his reward. 

With the conquest of the principalit}' by Edward L it 
ceased to exist as an independent or semi-independent 
state, though its political institutions were not made the 
same as those of England in all respects until 1830. 



• HISTORY OF WALES, 1066— 1282. 345 

Henceforth the history of Wales is merged in that of Great 
Britain, and save for the brief period during which Owain 
Glyndwr over a hundred years later revived the claims 
of the old princes of the country, and defied the authority 
of Henry IV., cannot with any advantage be treated in 
general *as distinct from that of the whole island. But yet 
the Welsh-speaking people have a particular history of their 
own. Edward, by the building of great castles, of which 
that of Carnarvon is the best known example, and by the 
foundation of towns in which English traders and artisans 
were encouraged to settle, not only made the hold of the 
central government too strong to be relaxed for any length 
of time, but made the centres of the more progressive 
industrial and social life hostile to all things Cymric. The 
conquest and the consequential changes did not, however, 
oust the Welsh cultivators of the soil ; but the loss 
of their independence, the change from the rule of native 
princes to that of unsympathetic foreigners, and their isola- 
tion in a mountainous part of the island, remote from the 
centre of affairs, retarded for a time their intellectual develop- 
ment. Notwithstanding this, and the lapse of more than six 
centuries, Cymraeg is spoken habitually by nearly a million 
of persons in the thirteen counties, and is thus the only one 
of the ancient tongues of the island that has survived as a 
living language by the side of English among any con- 
siderable number of our fellow-subjects in the United 
Kingdom ; while the descendants of the Cymry still retain 
many of their national characteristics, and preserve the 
consciousness of their national identity. To explain, so far 
as we can, how this has come about, and to describe briefly 
the condition and habits of the Welsh of to-day, are the 
principal aims of the remaining chapters of this work. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF WALES. 

Having traced the process and briefly narrated the events 
by which the Cymric princes lost all political power and 
Cymru its practical independence, we next propose to give 
an outline of the subsequent legal and constitutional history 
of Wales. 

We may here describe shortly its legal position about 
the middle of the thirteenth century. The area that was 
called Wales — i.e., which formed part of no English shire — 
had not been very largely curtailed since the time of William 
the Conqueror. The western limits of Gloucestershire, 
Herefordshire, and Shropshire, the three adjacent shires, 
were in the time of Henry I. only very vaguely defined. The 
result of the gradual formation of the lordships-marchers 
was, of course, to make the boundary line more and more 
precise, since their lords took care that the authorities of 
the shires should not trespass on the lands they had won 
by the sword. That line was not in the thirteenth cen- 
tury the same as the present one, which dates only 
from the time of Henry VIII. The former line included 
considerable portions of land that are now English, while 
the county palatine of Chester included the modern 
Elintshire and a great part of Denbighshire.^ The 

' Weought to piiiiitoiit tliat the district callei! Fcrfciiwlad (the middle country), 
and sometimes the "four lantrefs, '" included the greater part of the modern 
Flintshire and Denbighshire, and frequently clianged hands. 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 347 

boundary did not then, any more than in the earHer days 
of the Norman conquest, correspond with the territorial 
distribution of the two languages or races. ^ 

From the point of view of legal organisation the Welsh 
territory was at that time divided into : — 

(i.) The Principality, roughly corresponding to the modern 
counties of Anglesey, Carnarvon, and Merioneth, in the 
possession of the house of Gwyned. 

(ii.) Portions of land in the king's hands (which passed 
to Edward I. under the grants made to him by his father), 
of which the chief were the towns and castles of Carmarthen 
and Cardigan, with the lands usually held with them. In 
these places Edward in 1256 tried to establish an organisa- 
tion similar to that of the English shires ; but they hardly 
became effective till the Statute of Rhudlan came into force, 
though we may assume he created a county court and 
appointed the usual officers." 

(iii.) The county palatine of Pembroke and the lordship 
of Glamorgan. Pembroke had been a county palatine 
since the grant to Gilbert de Clare in 1138, and is thus 
the oldest Welsh county.^ The county palatine was not, 

1 See Professor Tout's paper on "The Welsh Shires : A Study in Constitu- 
tional History," "Y Cymnirodor," vol. ix. , p. 20i ; and the same author's 
"Edward ihe First" (Lond. 1893), P- '6. Enderbie, writing in the 
seventeenth century, says: — " Welsh is commonly used and spoken Enr;lish- 
ward beyond these old meares a great way, as in Hertfordshire, Gloucester- 
shire, and a great part of Shropshire" ("Cambria Triumphans, " ed. 1661, 
p. 209). 

" See Tout's paper (cited above), p. 211. Professor Tout has se\eral bits of 
evidence in support of this statement : e.g., in 1270 J'ain de Chaworth was 
ordered to do homage to Edward's brother " for the lands which he holds of 
the castles and cotmiies of Cardigan and Carmarthen" (35th 'Rep. of the Deputy, 
Keeper of Public Records, p. 11). In 1280 the "counties" of Carmarthen 
and Cardigan were granted to a certain Bogo of Knovill, the King's Justice of 
West Wales (Carmarthen Charters, collected by Daniel Tyssen and Alcwyn 
Evans, published by Spurrell, Carmarthen, 1878). 

•* Sej c. 24 of Owen's "Description of Pembrokeshire," headed "That 
Pembrokeshire was in ancient tyme a Countye Palatyne, and noe part of the 
Principalitie of Wales, &c.," in "Owen's Pembrokeshire" (edited with 



348 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

however, so extensive as the county as dehmited by the Tudor 
legislation. Haverfordwest, Wahvyn's Castle, Slebech, and 
Narberth were not within its area, nor were Lamphey, 
Kemmes, or Dewisland at this time among its parcels.^ 

The lordship of Glamorgan, though not strictly a county 
palatine, was one in substance. An organisation similar 
to that of Pembroke or Chester was created perhaps by 
Robert Fitzhamon, but certainly not long after his time. 
As Professor Tout suggests, the fact that it did not become 
an earldom is very likely due to its close connection with 
the earldom of Gloucester, with which it was usually held. 
The Glamorgan of the thirteenth century was not so large 
as the present county. Gower was outside its western 
limits, and some districts in the Vale were excepted from 
its jurisdiction, while the uplands were for the most part in 
the hands of Welsh chieftains. - 

(iv.) The rest of Wales was divided into lordships- 
marchers held of the king by Norman lords or Welsh 
chieftains, who held their lands on terms of vassalage. 
These lordships, with the characteristics of which we deal 
below, ultimately numbered about 140.^ 

notes by Henry Owen, B.C. L.), part i. (Lond. 1892), pp. 190 ct seq. 
The "Description" is also printed in the Cambrian Register, vol. iii. (Lond. 
1799), pp. 53-231. See also Tout's paper, p. 206. 

' Toufs paper cited above, and Owen's "Description." Before the Act of 
Henry VHI., however, the limits of the covmty had seeminjjly been extended. 
See the table made by Geo. Owen, printed m "Owen's Pembrokeshire," 
part ii. (Lond. 1897), p. 374, headed "How the Counties of Pembroke and 
Carmarthen were made up." There "Narberth Baronia," "Haverfordwest 
Baronia," " Walwinscastle Baronia," "Kemes Baronia," are placed in " Oulde 
Pembrokeshire"; but "Dewisland" and " Sleliech " are described as addeil 
by the statute. 

-See Tout's paper cited above, and G. T. Clark's "The Land of Morgan" 
(reprinted from the " Arcliceological Journal "), Lond. 1S8S. 

■'The princiixal sources of information already publislied as to tlie courts, 
legal procedure and practice, and the government of Wales and the Marches 
from the Edwardian Conquest to the beginning of the seventeenth century, are 
the chapter on "The Government of Wales" in Clive's "Ludlow" (Lond. 
1841); an essay printed in Hargraves? "Law Tracts" (Lond. 1787), from 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 349 

Bearing these things in mind let us now see how Edward 
proceeded to organise his newly won lands. Even before 
he had finally subdued Lewelyn he had taken some pre- 
liminary measures for the settlement of Welsh affairs. In 
1280 he had issued a commission^ to Thomas, Bishop of 
St. David's, Reginald de Grey, and Walter de Hopton, 

an anonymous MS. entitled, "A Discourse against the Jurisdiction of the 
King's Bench in Wales by Process of Latitat " ; " An Histoincal Account of the 
Ancient and Modern State of the Principality of Wales, Duchy of Cornwall, 
and Earldom of Cornwall, &c.," by Sir John Uodridge, Knight (2nd ed., 
Lond. 1714; 1st ed., Lond. 1630); Owen's " Pembrokeshire," cited above; 
G. T. Clark's "Cartae et alia Munumenta quae ad Dominium de f Glamorgan 
pertinent," 4 vols., vol. i. (1885), 1102-1135; vol. ii. (1890), 1348-1730; 
vol. iii. ( 1 89 1 ), 44 1 - 1 300 ; vol. iv. ( 1 892 ), 1 2 1 5- 1 689 ; G. G. Francis's ' ' Charters 
granted to Swansea, the Chief Town in the Seigniory of Gower " (privately 
printed, 1867), and other collections of borough charters, such as the "Car- 
marthen Charters " already cited; Rice Merrick's "A Booke of Glamorgan- 
shire Antiquities" (ist ed. 1578; new ed. by James Stuart Corbet, Lond. 
1867); "The Ruthin Court Rolls," cited above, p. 117; "A Descriptive 
Catalogue of the Penrice and Margam Manuscripts in the Possession of 
Miss Talbot of Margam," with an introduction and notes by Walter de Gray 
Birch (ist series, Lond. 1893; 2nd series, 1894, and 3rd series, 1895, all 
three privately printed), for the loan of which we are indebted to Mr. Charles 
Cheston, of Wyndham Place ; Coke's " Fourth Institute," and other legal 
treatises. See also "The Record of Carnarvon" (Record Commissioners, 
1838), and the extents appended to Seebohm's "Tribal System." The county 
histories also contain useful information, notably Theophilus Jones's "History 
of the County of Brecknock" (Brecknock, vol. i. 1805; vol. ii. 1809). But 
the fullest description of the political and legal institutions of Wales (in the 
broad sense) in Tudor times, and of their history, is to be found in a work 
printed but not yet published — "The Dialogue of the Government of Wales" 
(written about the end of the sixteenth century by George Owen, the author 
of the "Description"), edited by Henry Owen, B.C.L., who has kindly lent 
us the proof-sheets. It is a dialogue between Barthol, a doctor of the Civil 
Law, and Demetus, a Pembrokeshire man, in the course of which the Doctor 
interrogates the country gentleman as to the state and history of his country, 
and is courteously and fully answered by the latter. 

1 The commission is dated at Westm., 9 Edw. I., 4th Dec. For a fuller 
account of the commission and its proceedings see Lewis's paper on "The 
Court of the Council of Wales and the Marches" (cited above), pp. 4, 5, 
and Mr. E. Phillimore's note on p. 5. See also the "Historical Account of 
the State of Rhudlan " in the " Literary Remains of the Rev. Thomas Price " 
{Carnknanawc), i. 352-371, for a translation of part of the document. The 
evidence is printed in the Appendix to Wotton's " Leges Wallicae." 



350 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

directing them to examine upon oath persons Welsh and 
English in order to obtain information respecting the laws 
and usages by which the kings, his predecessors, had been 
accustomed to govern and order the Prince of Wales and 
the Welsh barons of Wales and their peers and others their 
inferiors, and all particulars connected with such laws and 
usages. The heads of inquiry comprised fourteen inter- 
rogatories to be put to each witness. The commissioners 
sat and examined witnesses at Chester, Rhudlan, the White 
Monastery (probably Oswestry),^ Montgomery, and Lan- 
badarn Fawr, and in due course reported the answers. If 
the evidence is true, there can be no doubt that in the area 
of inquiry Norman-English procedure and law had already 
almost entirely ousted the Welsh customs ; but there is 
reasonable ground for suspecting it. The frequent profes- 
sion of absolute ignorance and some rather evasive replies 
suggest that the witnesses were either carefully selected, or 
else under the influence of fear or motives of self-interest 
gave replies which they thought would be satisfactory to 
the English authorities. The survival of Welsh customs, as 
to which there is ample testimony even as late as Tudor 
times, tends to confirm one's suspicions, but on the other 
hand the commission's questions dealt chiefly with procedure 
and the rights of barons and landed proprietors ; and it 
may be urged that the supersession of Welsh law in regard 
to that part of the corpus Juris was not inconsistent with 
the retention of Welsh usages in regard to other parts, or as 
to holdings of land by inferior tenants in particular lordships. 
Edward remained in Wales for about two years after the 
downfall of U.ewelyn, reducing the Principality to order, 
and ultimately, partly as a result of the commission, pro- 
mulgated in 1284 the Ordinance of Rhudlan, consisting of a 
series of regulations which a recent writer has felicitously 
compared to the laws made by the British Government for 

' See Mr. E, Phillimore's note (b) at the end of Lewis's paper, ul>i s/tfiya. 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 351 

the settlement of the affairs of the North-West Provinces 
of India. It is not strictly speaking a statute, but it is 
always treated as one, and is included in the Statutes of the 
Realm.i 

It recites that :^ — 

" Edward by the grace of God, King of England, Lord 
of Ireland, and Duke of Aquitaine, to all his subjects of his 
land of Snowdon and of other his lands in Wales, greeting 
in the Lord. The Divine Providence, which is unerring in 
its own government, among other gifts of its dispensation 
wherewith it hath vouchsafed to distinguish us and our 
realm of England, hath now of its favour wholly and entirely 
transferred under our proper dominion the land of Wales, 
with its inhabitants heretofore subject unto us in feudal 
right, all obstacles whatsoever ceasing, and hath annexed 
and united the same unto the Crown of the aforesaid realm 
as a member of the same body. We therefore, under the 
Divine will, being desirous that our aforesaid land of 
Snowdon and our other lands in those parts like as all 
those which are subject unto our power, should be governed 
with due order to the honour and praise of God and of 
lloly Church and the advancement of justice, and that the 

^ It is in Latin, and has been printed several times in collections of the 
statutes. The authoritative version is that in the Statutes of the Realm 
(published by the Record Commissioners, 1810, vol. i., p. 55), with a transla- 
tion. In this version the abbreviations of the MSS. are not expanded. In 
Pickering's Collection of the Statutes the Latin text is printed in expanded 
form. The text of the 1810 version is from a roll, then in the Tower of 
London, now at the Record Office, and the various readings are from two 
rolls, written in the time of Edw. I., preserved among the Records in the 
Treasury of the Court of the Receipt of Exchequer in the Chapter House at 
Westminster (which also are now at the Record Office). The statute is also 
printed in A. Owen's "Ancient Laws," vol. ii., p. 908. 

- We feel it incumbent on us to explain that we make several lengthy 
citations from statutes and other authorities in this chapter because we hope 
that this work may be found useful to students in Wales, and we know that 
even at the National Colleges the statutes and some of the other books cited 
are either not at all or not easily accessible. 



352 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

people or inhabitants of those lands who have submitted 
themselves wholly unto our will, and whom we have there- 
unto so accepted, should be protected in security within 
our peace under fixed laws and customs, have caused to be 
rehearsed before us and the nobles of our realm the laws 
and customs of those parts hitherto in use, which, being 
diligently heard and fully understood, we have, by the 
advice of the aforesaid nobles, abolished certain of them ; 
some thereof we have allowed and some we have corrected, 
and we have likewise commanded certain others to be 
ordained and added thereto, and these we will shall be 
from henceforth steadfastly kept and observed in our lands 
in those parts according to the form underwritten." 

After generally providing that the justice of Snowdon 
is to have the custody and government of the king's peace 
in Snowdon and the lands of Wales adjoining, and that 
he is to administer justice according to original writs of 
the king and the laws and custom underwritten, the 
statute constitutes the counties of Anglesea, Carnarvon, 
Merioneth, Flint, Carmarthen, and Cardigan. It ordains 
for each county a sheriff as well as coroners, and also 
bailiffs for each commote.^ It then describes the 
duties of the office of sheriff and the manner of holding 
courts (both the county court and the sheriffs tourn in 
each commote), and goes on to deal with the mode of 
electing the coroner for each commote, his duties, and the 
way in which he is to discharge them. It then sets forth 
the form of some of the principal writs : novel disseisin for 
a freehold and also for a common of pasture ; for nuisance ; 
writ of mortdancestor ; writ of general disseisin ; writ of 
dower ; writ of debt ; covenant. Rules for the trials of 
pleas or causes are then given ; some are to be determined 
by the assize and some by inquest or jury. Pleas of lands 
in those parts, it is said, are not to be determined by battle 
' Sir. " Commote '" is generally, used for cvmivd in English books. 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 353 

nor by the grand assize. The county court is given juris- 
diction in all trespasses wherein the damages do not 
exceed forty shiUings : other trespasses before the justice 
of Wales. 

The statute also provides that — 

"Whereas heretofore women have not been endowed in 
Wales, the king granteth that they shall be endowed. The 
dower of a woman is two fold, one is an assignment of the 
third part of the whole land that belonged to her husband 
which were his during coverture, whereof there lieth the 
writ of reasonable dower, elsewhere described in its place 
with the other writs for Wales. . . . The other dower is 
when a son endoweth his wife by the assent of his father." 

As to succession the statute proceeds thus : — 

"Whereas the custom is otherwise in Wales than in 
England concerning succession to an inheritance inasmuch 
as the inheritance is partible among the heirs male, and 
from time whereof the memory of man is not to the 
contrary, hath been partible. Our lord the king will not 
have that custom abrogated, but willeth that inheritance 
shall remain partible among like heirs as it was wont to 
be, and partition of the same inheritance shall be made 
as it was wont to be made, with this exception, that 
bastards from henceforth shall not inherit, and also shall 
not have portions with the lawful heirs nor without the 
lawful heirs. And if it happen that any inheritance should 
hereafter, upon the failure of heir male descend unto 
females the lawful heirs of their ancestor last seised 
thereof, we will of our special grace that the same women 
shall have their portions thereof to be assigned them in 
our court, although this be contrary to the custom of 
Wales." 

The statute concludes thus : — 

" And whereas the people of Whales have besought us 
that we would grant unto them, that concerning their 

W.P. A A 



354 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

possessions immovable, as lands and tenements, the truth 
may be tried by good and lawful men of the neighbour- 
hood chosen by consent of the parties ; and concerning 
things movable as of contracts, debts, sureties, covenants, 
trespasses, chattels, and all other movables of the same 
sorts, they may use the Welsh law whereto they have 
been accustomed which was this, that if a man complains 
of another upon contracts or things done in such a place 
that the plaintiff's case may be proved by those who saw 
and heard it, when the plaintiff shall establish his case by 
those witnesses whose testimony cannot be disproved, 
then he ought to recover the thing in demand, and the 
adverse party be condemned, and in other cases which 
cannot be proved by persons who saw and heard, the 
defendant should be put to his compurgation sometimes 
with a greater number, sometimes with less, according to 
the quality and quantity of the matter in deed. And that 
in theft if one be taken with the mainours he shall not be 
permitted to pay it in but be holden for convict. We, for 
the common peace and quiet of our aforesaid people of our 
land of Wales, do grant the premises unto them. Yet so that 
it hold not place in thefts, larcenies, burnings, they murders, 
manslaughters, and manifest and notorious robberies, nor 
do by any means extend unto these ; wherein we will they 
shall use the laws of England as is before decreed. 

" And therefore, we command you that from henceforth 
you do steadfastly observe the premises in all things. So 
notwithstanding that whensoever and wheresoever, and as 
often as it shall be our pleasure, we may declare, interpret, 
enlarge, or diminish the aforesaid statutes and the several 
parts of them according to our mere will and as to us shall 
seem expedient for the security of us and our land aforesaid. 

" In witness whereof our seal hath been affixed to these 
presents. Given at Rothclan on Sunday in Mid-lent in 
the twelfth year of our reign." 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 355 

In regard to this statute it is to be noticed — 

That it applied only to the area of the Principality 
enjoyed by the last Lewelyn, prince of Wales ; it did not 
extend to the marches, i.e., the districts in the possession 
of lords marchers. The term " marches " subsequently in 
common parlance was limited to the districts or counties 
on the borders of Wales in the large sense, but strictly, 
and for legal purposes, it included all the lordships marchers, 
even those in the very heart of what is now Wales, or 
situate in the most remote counties, e.^:, the lordship of 
Kemes in Pembrokeshire was a lordship marcher.^ 

The Principality extended only to those cymwds or 
lordships of which Prince Lewelyn was seised. His pos- 
sessions, or to use the legal term parcella principalitatis 
Walliae were the cymwds grouped by the statute into the 
counties of Anglesea, Carnarvon, Merioneth, Cardigan, with 
part of Flintshire, and part of Carmarthenshire (West Towy).- 

The effect of the statute was to create formally an 
important distinction between the Principality land and 
the marchers. In the former, save so far as the statute 
makes express exceptions, English law was introduced ; 
in the latter no express enactment made English law the 
rule to be applied by the courts. In the Principality 
justice was administered by the justices appointed under 
the statute ; in the marches it was dispensed in each lord- 
ship by officers appointed by the lord according to the 
law of the lordship.^ 

In regard to the tenure of, and succession to land, Welsh 
customs were preserved. Upon death land was allowed 
to continue partible according to the Welsh custom which 
was called by the Norman-English "gavelkind." We deal 

^ SeeClive's "Ludlow" (cited j«/;-a), p. 135, and Owen's " Pembrokeshire," 
pt. ii. , pp. 425 et seq. 

- See Clive's "Ludlow" (cited supra), p. 117, and Dodridge's "Principality 
of Wales," p. 6. 

^ See Clive's "Ludlow" (cited j«/ra), p. 103. 

A A 2 



356 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

in the next chapter with the difficulty which the lawyers 
had in applying English law modified by this custom to 
property in land in the Principality. 

The Act only became fully and really operative very 
gradually, and even in the time of the Tudors (as appears 
from the Acts of Parliament referred to below) many 
notions and practices found in the Welsh laws survived. 
In regard to the formal political organisation, it appears 
to have been put in force at once. It is clear from the 
statute that the organisation of the cymwd had survived, 
and probable that it had become almost indistinguishable 
from that of an English manor. The Norman- English 
lawyers seem to have treated the cymwd as a seigniory, 
and applied the English rules in its administration ; and 
the definition of a cymwd to be found in the books is that 
it is " a great seigniory." ^ 

The general constitutional effect was that the Princi- 
pality was considered a distinct parcel of the kingdom of 
England, ruled however by English laws save so far as 
these were not modified by the provisions of the statute. 
The courts at Westminster did not affect to exercise any 
jurisdiction over it ; breve regis vion currit in Walliam. 

Let us turn now to the marches which were left 
untouched by Edward's legislation. From the time of the 
conquest a lordship-marcher was recognised by the king's 
courts and the English lawyers as a special kind of 
seigniory or honour. The distinctive marks of a lordship- 
marcher, as compared with the ordinary manor, were 
these : — 

First, the lord-marcher had Jura regalia or royal rights, his 
own chancery and his own courts, and appropriate officers. 

See the case of The Queen v. Reveley and others, in which the riglit 
of the Crown to treat Pentyirn as a lordship was in dispute and was affirmed. 
Report, p. 1 80. The case was privately reported and published for the 
Commissioners of Woods and Forests, Lond. 1870. 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 357 

Secondly, all writs within the seigniory ran in the name 
of the lord and were contra pace^n of the lord and not of 
the king of England. 

Thirdly, the lord-marcher had judgment of life and 
limb in all kinds of criminal cases, and also the power of 
pardoning all offences. 

Fourthly, he had a right to hold plea of all actions, real, 
personal, and mixed within his seigniory. 

Fifthl}-, the king's writ did not run into the marches, for 
they were not parcel of the realm of England, nor could 
the king intromit into any of the lordships for the 
execution of justice. The only sorts of causes in which 
the king's court could hold plea, though the cause of action 
arose within the marches were : — 

(a) Those to which the lord-marcher was a party, either 
in respect of the title to the lordship itself or its 
boundaries. 

{d) Those causes in which it was necessary to write to 
the bishop, g.g:, quare impedit and issues of marriage 
and bastardy. In these cases an appeal w^s open 
to the king and his privy council. 

Sixthly, the lord-marcher had the power of constituting 
boroughs. 

Seventhly, for the purpose of exercising his powers the 
lord-marcher had the power of appointing officers, usually 
the following : Justiciary, chancellor, seneschal, mareschal, 
chamberlain, and constable, all of whom usually held their 
office durante bene placito. The courts were generally held 
at the castle and the possession of a castle was deemed to 
be necessary to a lordship-marcher, whence the maxim 
" No lordship-marcher without a castle," and it was a 
condition of his tenure that a lord-marcher should supply 
his castle with sufficient men and munition for the keeping 
of the king's enemies in subjection. 

The picture, therefore, that Wales presented in the time 



358 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

of Edward I. was very similar to that which one gathers to 
have been the condition of the larger part of France and 
Germany at the same time. It is not difficult to see the 
evils naturally incident to the conflicting rights of so many 
petty sovereign's, and in fact their castles became the 
homes of disaffected and factious subjects of English kings 
and Welsh princes, as well as of mercenary adventurers. 

With regard to the law administered in the courts of 
the lordships, there appears to have been considerable 
diversity of practice, but in the main the best authorities 
lead to the conclusion that for the most part it was the 
Norman-English law that was adopted, though many 
particular customs, especially in regard to the tenure of 
land, were recognised by the local courts.^ 

Lord Herbert of Cherbury in his history of Henry VIII. 
gives the following account of the lordships marchers : — 
" As the kings of England heretofore had many times 
brought armies to conquer that country (Wales), defended 
both by mountains and stout people, without yet reducing 
them to a final and entire obedience, so they resolved at 
last to give all that could be gained there to those who 
would attempt it, whereupon many valiant and able noble- 
men and gentlemen won much land from the Welsh, which 
as gotten by force was by permission of the kings then 
reigning held for divers ages in that absolute manner as 
fura regalia were exercised in them by the conquerors. 
Yet in those parts which were gotten at the king's only 
charge (being not a few) a more regular law was observed. 
Howsoever, the general government was not only severe, 
but various in man)' parts ; insomuch, that in about some 
141 lordships marchers, which were now gotten, many 
strange and discrepant customs were practised."- Lord 

' See Clark's " Cartae et alia Munumenta," Mssini. Consult also Owen's 
" Description." 

- " History of Henry VIII.," printed in Kennet's " Complete History," 
Lond. 17 1 9. 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 359 

Herbert's statement is no doubt true as to parts of South 
Wales, especially the counties of Pembroke and Glamorgan, 
but considerable parts of the marches must have been 
in the hands of Welshmen who had never been finally 
conquered at all by the invader, but had submitted to 
hold of the king or of a lord marcher. Lord Herbert's 
account agrees with that given in the MS. printed in Clive's 
" Ludlow " : — 

" The said lord marchers being English lords, executed 
the English lawes for the most parte within their lordships, 
and brought the most parte of the landes of the said lord- 
ships to be English tenure, and passed the same according 
to the lawes of England, viz., by fine, recovery feoffment 
and seisin as in England, and such part as they left to the 
auntient inhabitants of the country to possesse, being for 
the most part the barrenest soiles was permitted by some 
lordes to be holden by the old Welsh custome, as to passe 
the same by surrender in court."^ 

In Jones's History of Breconshire substantially the same 
view is presented. He says : — 

" In some lordships there were two courts, one for the 
English inhabitants called Englishcheria, or the rights of an 
Englishman, and Wellescheria, or the rights of a Welshman. 
The former was abolished in the 14th of Edward III." 

" There were also in some lordships a mixture or jumble 
of the laws of both countries ; thus Leland tells us that : 
Blain Levein (Blaenllyfni in Welscherie) though it be in 
Welsh Talgarth yet keep the Englishe tenure.' So also in 
Welsh and English Penkelley, English and Welsh Hay 
and many others, lands are frequently said to be holden of 
English tenure and Welsh Dole ; Cyfraith saesneg a rhan 
Cymraeg ; and here the lord had the wardship of all the 
children both sons and daughters ; in many of the lord- 
ships none of the Welsh customs were permitted to be 
^ Clive's " Ludlow," p. 103. 



36o THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

retained, and the English laws entirely prevailed ; the 
whole jurisprudence in fact depended on the will of the 
first conquerors." ^ 

Some account of the jurisdiction of the lords marchers 
is to be found under Quo warranto in Coke's entries 
(549-551, No. 9 Quo warranto). He there gives the 
pleadings in a proceeding on a Quo zvarranto in 42 
Elizabeth (1600) against Thomas Cornewall of Burford in 
Shropshire. The information alleges that Burford without 
warrant uses in the manor of Stapleton and Lugharneys in 
the county of Hereford, the franchise of taking the goods 
and chattels of felons. To this the defendant pleaded that 
before and up to the statute of 27 Henry VHI., and from 
the time of legal memory, Wales was governed by Welsh 
laws and Welsh officers in all matters, whether relating to 
lands and tenements, or to life and limb, and all matters 
and things whatever. Also at the passing of the statute 
of 27 Henry VHI., divers persons were seised of divers 
" several lordships," called in " English lordships marchers 
in Wales, and held in them royal laws and jurisdiction as 
well of life and limb as of lands and tenements and all 
other things, and they could pardon and had full and free 
power ... of pardoning all treasons, felonies, and other 
offences whatever, and also to do and execute all things 
whatever within their separate lordships aforesaid, as freely 
and in as ample a manner and form as the king may in his 
aforesaid dominions ; and that moreover the king ought 
not and could not interfere in any of the said lordships 
belonging to any other person for the execution of justice." 
The plea further states that the lords marchers were 
entitled to all forfeitures, goods of felons, deodands, etc., 
according to the laws and customs of Wales without any 
grant. It was further pleaded up to the date of the statute 

' T'"ies, vol. i., p. 247, citing Camden, vol. ii., p. 401 ; and see vol. i. , p. 246, 
for conveyances, etc. 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 361 

the king's writ did not run in the lordships marchers. The 
plea then goes on to aver that the manors in question were 
lordships marchers, to which Cornewall and his ancestors 
had been entitled at the passing of the statute of 27 
Henry VIII. c. 26, and that neither that statute, nor the 
statute of Philip and Mary, c. 15, deprived him of the 
particular franchise in question, but confirmed it to him. 
To this plea the attorney-general demurred, thereby 
admitting the truth of its averments. " Shortly, the 
pleadings come to this, that so much of Wales as had not 
been brought under the Statutiun Walliae by Edward I. 
continued till the 27 Henry VIII. (1535) to be governed 
by a number of petty chiefs called lords marchers — chiefs 
who might be compared to the small rajahs to whom much 
of the territory of the Punjab and the North-West Provinces 
still belong." ^ 

To conciliate the Welsh, Edward I., as we have seen, 
conferred the Principality upon his son Edward, who 
was born in Carnarvon Castle, and it became usual 
to confer this dignity upon the heir to the Crown. 
It has been sometimes imagined that the revenues 
of the Principality necessarily belonged to the Prince 
of Wales, but this view is erroneous. The revenues 
of Wales form part of the hereditary revenue of the 
Crown and whenever a Prince of Wales has enjoyed 
them it has been by virtue of a special charter or grant. 
The earliest grant given by Dodridge in his account of the 
Principality is that by which the Crown lands and lordships 
in Wales were conferred by Edward III. on the Black 
Prince. The last grant of that nature was made in the 
first of George I. to George (afterwards George II.) by 
virtue of a special Act of Parliament.- 

^ Stephen, " History of the Criminal Law," vol. i., p. 142. There is a tract 
entitled '-Cornwall's Case" in the Harleian MS., 141, in Brit. Mus. 

- Seethe 12th ReportoftheCommissionersappointedunder 26 George III. c.27. 



362 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

It was probably during the period from the Edwardian 
Conquest to the time of Henry VIII. that the condition 
of the Welsh people as a whole was most unhappy, at 
any rate since the troubled period that followed the reign 
of Howel Da. It was marked by several abortive insur- 
rections, and by the temporarily successful revolution, in 
the latter part of the fourteenth century, of Owen Glyndwr. 
The black death appears to have ravaged the marches and 
the Welsh counties with much the same severity as England. 

Neither life nor property was safe in the marches. 
Probably the condition of things in the Principality was 
slightly better than in the greater part of the marcher land. 
Private wars between the lords marchers continued to 
be very frequent. Their castles had become the haunts 
of men of disreputable character, ready to place their 
swords at the disposal of any one willing to employ them. 
They sometimes conspired together to despoil the Welsh, 
sometimes they quarrelled among themselves, involving 
in the dispute their tenants and their vassals, and some- 
times they rebelled against the king of England ; and 
while in the course of the two centuries which succeeded 
the conquest of Wales, their power and influence from 
various causes gradually declined, their administration of 
justice became a mere mockery, and the number of the 
courts and the clashing of jurisdiction involved the 
holders of land in vexatious litigation as expensive as 
it was corrupt.^ 

The venality and rapacity of the courts of the lordships 
marchers, the general disorder that prevailed, and the 
difficulty of punishing crime in consequence of the conflicts 
of jurisdiction and the flight of accused persons from one 
lordship to another, led to the establishment of a new court, 
that of " The President and Council of Wales and the 

' See Wynne's "History of the Gwydir Family " (ist ed. 1770; 2nd ed. 
1780; 3rd ed. 1827 ; 4th ed. 1878). 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 363 

Marches." Its origin is not quite clear, but it seems to 
have been created in Edward IV.'s time — in 1478, and 
was probably intended to be of a merely temporary 
character; but Henry VII. made it permanent, and 
extended its jurisdiction over the counties of Chester, 
Salop, Worcester, Hereford, Gloucester, and the city of 
Bristol, while its seat was fixed at Ludlow.^ This was 
done, not by statute, but by an exercise of the royal prero- 
gative which gave rise to question in later years. Of the 
composition of the court in the time of Edward IV., we 
only know that it consisted of John, Bishop of Worcester, 
and Anthony, Earl Rivers, the uncle and governor of the 
young Prince of Wales, Edward of Westminster, and others 
of his council,- who are said to have sat at the " town hall of 
Salop," and to have made certain ordinances. This language 
suggests that the new court really grew out of the council 
of the Prince of Wales — a body the ordinary authority of 
which could of course only extend to the Principality. 
Whatever its earlier composition, when it became a fixed 
institution, or at any rate after Henry VIII.'s legislation, 
its members were the Lord President (who was "the 
chiefe and supreme governor of all the Principalitie and 
Marches of Wales "^), the Chief Justice of Chester, three 

^ For much information concerning the earher history ol this court see a 
paper by the late Judge David Lewis (edited and annotated by Mr. Egerton 
PhilHmore), entitled, "The Court of the President and Council of Wales and 
the Marches" ("Y Cymmrodor," xii., p. i), and "Further Notes on the 
Court of the Marches," by Mr. Lleufer Thomas in " Y Cymmrodor," vol. xiii., 
p. 97. See also Powel's "Historic" (ed. 15S4), pp. 389 and 391-2; the 
Preface to Bacon's " The Ai-gument on the Jurisdiction of the Council of the 
Marches " in Spedding, Ellis and Heath's edition of Bacon's Works, vol. vii. 
(1859), p. 569; and Wright's "History of Ludlow and its Neighbourhood" 
(Ludlow, 1852), pp. 378 et seq. ; Clive's "Ludlow" and Owen's "Dialogue," 
cited above; also Coke's "Fourth Institute," c. 48. 

- Powel's Hist., ed. 1584, p. 3S9, and Lewis's paper, p. 22, Jibi supra, citing 
a MS. copy of tlie original Shrewsbury record referred to by Powel — Vitellius, 
c. i., fo. 2. 

•* The words are George Owen's : " Dialogue," p. 21. 



364 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, vhi.) 

others of the justices of Wales ; together with such extra- 
ordinary members " both lords and knights and such others 
as were learned in the lavves, and were called to councell 
when the Lord President should think requisite." ^ The 
powers and methods of procedure of the court were defined 
in Instructions which were renewed and amended from time 
to time. Briefly put, it had a criminal jurisdiction much 
like that of the Star Chamber, but more extensive than 
that court originally possessed ; an equitable jurisdiction to 
mitigate the rigours of the law, especially for the benefit of 
poor suitors ; and a common law jurisdiction both as to real 
and personal actions.- Its procedure was analogous to that 
of the Star Chamber and the Court of Chancery. In regard 
to crimes its methods were inquisitorial, and it had power 
to subject persons suspected of felony on proper grounds 
to torture.'' 

Whatever doubts may have existed as to the legality of 
this court were set at rest, so far as Wales and the marches 
were concerned, by the stat. 34 & 35 Henry VIII. c. 26, 
s. 4, which enacted that there should be and remain a 
president and council in the dominion and principalit}' 
of Wales and the marches thereof, in manner and form as 
hath been heretofore used and accustomed, which president 
and council should have power and authority to determine 
by their wisdoms and discretions such causes and matters 
as were or should be assigned to them by the king as 
theretofore had been accustomed and used. There is no 
reference here, it will be noticed, to the English shires 

' Dodridge {ubi supra), p. 54. Cf. Owen's " Dialogue," p. 21. 

- See Owen's " Dialogue," pp. 21-23; Lewis's paper (iil'i supra), p. 18, 
citing Gerard's Discourse to Walsingham. 

•* See the Instructions of 1574 cited by Wright {ubi supra), p. 376. So late 
as James I.'s time this power was retained in two sets of instructions 
revised by Coke. The Instructions of 1607 and 1617 contain no express 
power to torture, but there are general words which are capable of being 
construed to cover tlie practice. See Preface to Bacon's " Arguuient " {ubi 
supra), p. 569. 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 365 

included by Henry VII. in the area of the council's 
authority — a very material point in the controversy which 
took place in the reign of James I. 

Except as altered by the formation of this new court 
the organisation of Wales and the marches remained much 
in the same condition down to the time of Henry VIII. 
As a consequence of the insurrection of Owen Glyndwr, 
a very oppressive series of statutes, upon which we need 
not dwell, was passed in the reigns of the Lancastrian 
princes ; but as bearing upon the history of tenure, we 
may mention that by the 28 Edward III. c. 2, lords of the 
marches of Wales were made attendant to the crown of 
England and not to the principality of Wales. 

The accession of Henry VII. was the commencement of 
a brighter epoch for Wales and the marches. The power 
of the lords marchers had greatly declined ; in consequence 
of the Wars of the Roses many of the lordships were in 
the king's hands, but it was not till the latter part of 
Henry VIII.'s reign that legislative steps were taken to 
improve the political and judicial organisation of that part 
of the country. The performances of Henry VII, did not 
by any means fulfil the expectations which the Welsh 
people formed from the accession to the throne of a prince 
of Cymric descent. Though some relief was given to the 
tenants in parts of the country, no determined effort was 
made to remedy the grievances the people suffered at the 
hands of the surviving lords marchers, or to reduce the 
country into a more settled condition. No doubt Henry 
intended the continuance or renewed establishment of the 
Council of Wales and the Marches to be a step in that 
direction, but under William, Bishop of Lincoln (the first 
president mentioned in the records of the court), and 
Geoffrey Blyth, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and 
John Voysey, Bishop of Exeter, who succeeded him, the 
court seems to have been by no means efficient in putting 



366 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

down the abuses of the lord-marcher system, or able to 
make punishment swift and certain.* For instance, 
Rowland Lee, who followed Voysey in the presidency 
ill 1535. vvriting" to Cromwell about the condition of the 
lordship of Magor in 1534-S, says he found that there 
were living unpunished, under the protection of Sir Walter 
Herbert, five men who had committed wilful murder 
eighteen who had committed murder, and twenty thieves 
and outlaws who had committed every variety of crime 
from the robbing of a man and his mother and putting 
them "on a hotte trevet'^ for to make them schow," 
to a robbery of the cathedral of ILandafif, perpetrated by 
Myles Mathew (a friend of Sir Walter's), and other persons 
unknown. 

It was under Rowland Lee that the court became 
a terror to the evil-doers in the marches and a powerful 
weapon for keeping the peace and dispensing justice 
throughout the West. Lee was a very severe, even a 
cruel judge, but he was wise in counsel and active in the 
discharge of his duties.* His tenure of office (which lasted 
until 1 543) prepared the way for the practical application 
of the great statutes by which Henry VHL united Wales 
and the marches to England.^ 

' See Lewis's paper, ubi supra, pp. 21-24 \ P- 28. 

- See Wright's " Ludlow," p. 383. 

-* This is obviously for "trivet." Mr. Phillimore suggests it is equivalent 
to the Welsh tiyheit (a. support ; a three-legged utensil put over an open fire). 
Lewis, uhi stipra, p. t,;^. 

^ He did not content himself with sitting at Ludlow for the hearing of 
causes, etc. ; but made circuits in, or rather visited, such districts and places 
within his jurisdiction as specially required attention. See Lewis's paper, ubi 
supra. 

" It is said by Ellis Giiffith ("a soldier of Calais" — so he describes 
himself) in his " History of England and Wales from William the Conqueror 
to the Reign of Edward VI.,"' preserved in MS. in the Mostyn Collection 
(see Gwenogvryn Evan's " Report on MSS. in the Welsh Language," vol. i. 
U898), pp. X. and 214, Parly. Paper, 1898, C— 8,829), that Lee caused 
over 5,000 men to be hanged during six years. We cannot accept so high 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 367 

In the year of Lee's appointment no fewer than five Acts 
relating- to Wales were passed. The first was one for the 
punishment of jurors in the lordships marchers, obviously 
designed to check the giving of verdicts friendly to the 
accused flagrantly against the evidence. There is reason 
to believe that the practice of bribing or otherwise corrupt- 
ing juries in the lord-marcher courts prevailed very largely. 
The second was an Act prohibiting the ferrying of persons 
and goods over the Severn at night. This, of course, was 
designed to put a stop to the flight of criminals accused or 
convicted from the area of jurisdiction in which the crime 
was triable or punishable to another in which it was not, 
and also, of course, to prevent the carriage and disposal of 
stolen goods. The third was an Act for the amendment of 
the administration of justice, the details of which we cannot 
stop to give. One of its most important provisions, how- 
ever, was the allowance of appeals from the courts of the 
lords marchers to the king's commissioners or the President 
and Council of the Marches. Certain old Welsh customs 
were abolished, e.g., Comuwi'thas, or collections. It also 
prohibited " congregations " by Welshmen in any place in 
Wales, unless for evident and necessary cause, and by the 
licence of the chief officers and ministers of the seigniory, 
and in their presence — a provision remarkably like recent 

a figure as accurate ; it is evidently simply a reflex of popular belief some 
years afterwards. But even if we assume the true figure to be only one-fifth 
(1,000), that would be, having regard to the paucity of population and the 
comparative smallness of the area concerned, a terrible record, and must have 
involved great injustice. We must remember that no jury intervened, that 
perhaps torture was resorted to, and that Lee held office during what Green 
calls "the English Terror" under Thomas Cromwell. Notice, too, "the 
apparent relish " (the words are Lewis's) with which Lee and his brother 
judge write to Cromwell as to certain batches of convicts. We think Judge 
Lewis's view of Lee too favourable. His cruel and arbitrary administra- 
tion may perhaps be justified by political considerations ; but neither its 
necessity nor its success prove him to have been a good or upright judge. 
There can be no doubt that the reduction of the marches to order and the 
suppression of the power of the lords marchers was part of Cromwell's policy. 



368 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

legislation concerning public meetings in Ireland. The 
fourth was an Act for punishing Welshmen for making 
assaults or affrays on the inhabitants of Shropshire, Here- 
fordshire, and Gloucestershire ; and the fifth one entitled 
" An Act for the Purgation of Convicts in Wales," which dealt 
chiefly with the plea of benefit of clergy.^ In the following 
year an Act was passed instituting the office of justice of 
the peace and providing for the appointment of justices in 
Chester and the eight then existing Welsh counties.- 

The legislation of 1534 shows that the affairs of Wales 
were occupying much of the time of the central government ; 
but its energy was not exhausted, and the Acts of that year 
were only first steps towards the suppression of the political 
and judicial authority of the lords marchers, and the com- 
plete merging of Wales and the marches into the English 
polity.^ 

Under the rule of Thomas Cromwell, by the 27 
Henry VIII. c. 26 and the 34 & 35 Henry VIII. c. 26, 
the arrangements for the legislative and executive govern- 
ment of Wales were practically assimilated to those of 
the English counties, and an improved judicial system 
introduced. 

The first Act was one entitled " An Act for Laws and 
Justice to be ministered in Wales in like form as it is in 
this Realm." The preamble recites : — 

" Albeit the dominion, principality, and country of Wales 
justly and righteously is, and ever hath been incorporated, 
annexed, united, and subject to and under the Imperial 
Crown of this realm, as a very member and joint of the 

' These Acts are the stats. 26 Henry VIII. c. 4, c. 5, c. 6, c. 11, and c. 12. 

- Slat. 27 Henry VIII. c. 5. But as to Welsh justices, consult the later 
Act, 34 & 31; Henry VIII. c. 26. See p. 377 below. 

•^ How far these measures were desired by the body of Welsh-speaking 
people we cannot tell. Lord Herbert of Cherbury inserts in his "History of 
Henry VIII." a speech by a Welsli gentleman advocating the union (" History " 
uH supra, p. 1 7 1 ). 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 369 

same, whereof the King's most Royal Majesty of meer 
droit, and very right, is very head, king, lord, and ruler ; 
yet notwithstanding, because in the same country, princi- 
pality, and dominion divers rights, usages, laws, and 
customs be far discrepant from the laws and customs of this 
realm, and also because that the people of the same domi- 
nion have and do daily use a speech nothing like ne 
consonant to the natural mother tongue used within this 
realm, some rude and ignorant people have made distinc- 
tion and diversity between the king's subjects of this realm 
and his subjects of the said dominion and principality of 
Wales, whereby great discord, variance, debate, division, 
murmur,, and sedition hath grown between his said sub- 
jects ; his highness therefore, of a singular zeal, love, and 
favour, that he beareth towards his subjects of his said 
dominion of Wales, minding and intending to reduce them 
to the perfect order, notice, and knowledge of his laws, of 
this his realm, and utterly to extirp all and singular the 
sinister usages and customs differing from the same, and to 
bring the said subjects of this his realm, and of his said 
dominion of Wales, to an amicable concord and unity, 
hath by the deliberate advice, consent, and agreement of 
the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons in 
this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of 
the same, ordained, enacted, and established, that this said 
country or dominion of Wales shall be, stand, and con- 
tinue for ever from henceforth incorporated, united, and 
annexed to and with this his realm of England ; and that 
all and singular person and persons born, and to be born 
in the said principality, country, or dominion of Wales 
shall have, enjoy, and inherit all and singular freedoms, 
liberties, rights, privileges, and laws within this his realm 
and other the King's dominions, as other the King's 
subjects naturally born within the same have, enjoy, and 
inherit." 

W.P B B 



370 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

The statute then enacts tn/er alia : — - 
" And that all and singular person and persons inherit- 
able to any manors, lands, tenements, rents, reversions, 
services, or other hereditaments, which shall descend after 
the feast of All Saints next coming, within the said 
principality, country, or dominion of Wales, or within any 
particular lordship, part, or parcel of the said country or 
dominion of Wales, shall for ever, from and after the said 
feast of All Saints, inherit and be inheritable to the same 
manors, lands, rents, tenements, reversions, and heredita- 
ments, after the English tenure, without division or parti- 
tion, and after the form of the laws of this realm of 
England, and not after any Welsh tenure, ne after the 
form of any Welsh laws or customs ; and that the laws, 
ordinances, and statutes of this realm of England, for ever, 
and none other laws, ordinances, or statutes, from and 
after the Feast of All Saints next coming, shall be used, 
practised, and executed in the said country or dominion of 
Wales, and every part thereof, in like manner, form, and 
order, as they be and shall be had, used, practised, and 
executed in this realm, and in such like manner and form 
as hereafter by this Act shall be further established and 
ordained ; any Act, statute, usage, custom, precedent, 
liberty, privilege, or other thing had, made, used, granted, 
or suffered to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding. 

"III. And forasmuch as there be many and divers 
lordships marchers within the said country or dominion 
of Wales, lying between the shires of England and the 
shires of the said country or dominion of Wales, and being 
no parcel of any other shires where the laws and due 
correction is used and had, and by reason whereof hath 
ensued, and hath been practised, perpetrated, committed, 
and done, within and among the said lordships and 
countries to them adjoining, manifold and divers detest- 
able murthers, brenning of houses, robberies, thefts, 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 371 

trespasses, routs, riots, unlawful assemblies, embraceries, 
maintenances, receiving of felons, oppressions, ruptures of 
the peace, and manifold other malefacts, contrary to all 
laws and justice ; and the said offenders thereupon making 
their refuge from lordship to lordship, were and continued 
without punishment or correction ; for due reformation 
whereof, and forasmuch as divers and many of the said 
lordships marchers be now in the hands and possession of 
our sovereign lord the king, and the smallest number of 
them in the possession of other lords. It is therefore 
enacted by the authority aforesaid, that divers of the said 
lordships marchers shall be united, annexed, and joined to 
divers of the shires of England, and divers of the said 
lordships marchers shall be united, annexed, and joined to 
divers of the shires of the said country or dominion of 
Wales, in manner and form hereafter following. . . ." 

" XX. Also be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that 
all justices, commissioners, sheriffs, coroners, escheators, 
stewards and their lieutenants, and all other officers and 
ministers of the law shall proclaim and keep the sessions, 
courts, hundreds, leets, sheriff's courts, and all other courts 
in the English tongue ; and all oaths of officers, juries, and 
inquests, and all other affidavits, verdicts, and wagers of 
law, to be given and done in the English tongue ; and also 
that from henceforth no person or persons that use the 
Welsh speech or language shall have or enjoy any manner, 
office, or fees within this realm of England, Wales, or other 
the King's dominion, upon pain of forfeiting the same 
offices or fees, unless he or they use and exercise the 
English speech or language." 

" XXXI. Provided always, that this present Act nor any- 
thing therein contained shall not take away or derogate 
from any laws, usages, or laudable customs now used 
within the three shires of North Wales, nor shall not 
deprive nor take away the whole liberties of the Duchy of 

B B 2 



372 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

Lancaster, but the said liberties shall continue and be used 
in every lordship, parcel of the said duchy, within the 
dominion and country of Wales as the liberties of the said 
duchy be used in shire-ground, and not county palatine, 
within this realm of England." 

" XXXV. Provided always, that lands, tenements, and 
hereditaments lying in the said country and dominion of 
Wales, which have been used time out of mind by the 
laudable customs of the said country, to be departed and 
departible among issues and heirs males, shall still so 
continue and be used in like form, fashion, and condition 
as if this Act had never been had nor made, anything 
in this Act to the contrary thereof notwithstanding." 

By section 36 the king was empowered to suspend or 
revoke any part of this statute " at any time within three 
years after the end of the Parliament, so as such suspen- 
sion, &c., be made in writing under the Great Seal, and be 
annexed to the Parliament roll of this statute, and pro- 
claimed in every shire in Wales ; " and by section 37 it was 
enacted that " for five years the king may erect in Wales 
so many courts and justices, &c., as he will." 

The effect of this statute was to convert the whole of the 
marches into shire-ground, and to introduce into all the 
parts of the " dominion and principalit}' " of Wales that 
were outside the limits of the old eight counties the county 
organisation of England. It struck a fatal blow at the 
power of the lords marchers ; though then it did not 
expressly abolish all their peculiar powers, yet the result 
of the whole Act seems to amount to a supersession 
by the ordinary courts of the distinctive courts of these 
lordships, and the withdrawal of most of the j'la-a regalia. 
The thirteenth section, indeed, preserved certain liberties to 
the temporal lords marchers, namely : — (i.) the accustomed 
mises and profits at the first entry into their lands ; (ii.) the 
right to hold courts baron, courts leet, and law-days in 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 373 



their lordships ; and (iii.) certain ancient privileges, such 
as "waife, straife, infanthef, outfanthef, treasure trove 
deodands, goods and chattels of felons," &c. Such lords 
marchers were also by section 25 allowed half the forfeitures 
of their tenants.^ 

It will be seen from the third section, which is printed 
above, that by its operation five new counties are created — 
Monmouth, Brecon, Radnor, Montgomery, and Denbigh — 
by grouping together divers lordships marchers. The lord- 
ships marchers not included in these new units were added 
to existing English and Welsh shires. Sections 3 to 19 
inclusive deal with the details of the operation, which may 
be summarised in a table thus : — 



No. of lordships marchers dealt with 
in regard to each county. 

24 
16 
16 
II 
9 
7 

10 
3, and all honours, &c. , lying 
between Chepstow Bridge and 
Gloucestershire 
17 



13 
I 
I 



How dealt with. 

United to form Monmouthshire. 
United to form Brecknockshire. 
United to form Radnorshire. 
United to form Montgomeryshire. 
United to form Denbighshire. 
Added to Shropshire. 
Added to Herefordshire. 



Added to Gloucestershire. 
Added to Glamorganshire. 
Added to Carmarthenshire. 
Added to Pembrokeshire. 
Added to Cardiganshire. 
Added to Merionethshire.- 



Monmouthshire was placed in a category apart, and 
annexed to England ; while for the easier administration 
of ju.stice, having regard to the distance of the Welsh 
counties from London, by section 9 Chancery and Exchequer 
offices were established at Brecknock and at Denbigh ; 

' These provisions (ss. 25, 30) were confirmed and extended to spiritual 
lords marchers by i & 2 Ph. & Mary, c. 15. 
- For a list of the lordships marchers thus dealt with, see Appendix C. 



374 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

and by section lO it was provided that justice should be 
ministered and exercised in the new counties, by judges to 
be appointed by the king, according to the law of England 
and such Welsh customs as might be allowed by the king 
and his council. 

The manner of descent of manors, lands, and other here- 
ditaments is described in section 2, and the Welsh method of 
partition is done away with in the broadest way ; but it should 
be noticed that section 35 provides expressly that "lands, 
tenements, and hereditaments" in Wales, " which have been 
used time out of mind by the laudable customs of the said 
country to be departed and departible among issues and 
heirs male," shall still be so used. There seems at first sight 
a discrepancy here ; but the intention seems to have been 
to make the English rules apply in general, and to throw 
on any one relying on the Welsh custom the burden of 
proving its existence in regard to the land in question 
before the time of legal memor)-. But all doubt as to the 
construction of these sections was finally set at rest by the 
abolition, by the 34 & 35 Henry VIII. c. 26, of the Welsh 
rules of descent. 

The statute 27 Henry VIII. c. 26, also conferred Parlia- 
mentary representation on the Welsh counties and boroughs- 
So far back as the reign of Edward II. members had been 
returned for the counties of Anglesey, Carnarvon, and 
Merioneth, and the boroughs of Beaumaris, Carnarvon, and 
Conway, to the Parliament summoned to meet at West- 
minster on the 14th December, 1326, and by prorogation 
on the 7th January, 1327.^ No members were afterwards 

1 See Introduction to W. R. Williams's " Parliamentary History of Wales " 
(Brecknock, 1895). Hughes's " Parliamentary Rep. of Cardiganshire" (1849) 
contains a writ, dated l8th April. 15 Edw. II., to Edmund, Earl of Arundel, 
justiciar of Wales, directing him to choose twenty-four persons from South 
and a like number from North Wales to attend the Parliament summoned to 
York for May 2, 1322. The writ summoning members for the Parliament of 
IJ26 is dated at Kenilworth, the 8th January, 1326-7 (Williams, ubi supra). 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 375 

summoned until the passing of the Act of 1535, by the 
29th section of which it was enacted that one knight should 
be elected for each of the twelve Welsh counties created 
or newly delimited by it, and one burgess from every 
borough therein being a shire-town (except the shire-town of 
Merioneth) ; while to the county of Monmouth two knights 
were allotted, and one burgess to the borough of Monmouth 
(section 26). Whether Welsh members attended the Parlia- 
ments of 1536 and 1539 is doubtful, as the returns have 
been lost, but members were certainly returned from Wales 
and served in the Parliament of 1541. 

Important as this Act was, it did not complete the 
new organisation of Wales,' and further legislation was 
contemplated. By section 26 it was enacted that a 
commission under the Great Seal should be appointed 
to inquire and view all the shires except the three 
North Welsh ones created by the Statute of Rhudlan, 
and upon such view to divide the former into hundreds, 
and certify with the commission such hundreds into the 
Court of Chancery ; and by section 27 it was directed that 
a like commission should be appointed to inquire into and 
report upon the Welsh laws and customs, that the report 
should be certified to the king and his council, and that the 
king and council, upon deliberate advice, might allow such 
laws, usages, and customs as they might deem expedient, 
requisite, and necessary to remain in full strength and 
vigour. These commissions and their reports are lost.^ 
It is certain that the first was appointed and reported, for 
section 3 of the 34 & 35 Henry VIII. confirms the limita- 
tions into hundreds made by it for each of the nine 

See also Stubbs's "Constitutional History," vol. ii., pp. 382, 392. Dr. Stubbs 
evidently assumes the summonses for the 1322 Parliament were complied with. 
' See Oldnall's "Practice of the Great Sessions on the Carmarthen 
Circuit" (Lond. 1814), Introduction, p. xxvi. He is mistaken in thinking 
that Rowlands in his Mona Antiqiia (p. 114) is referring to these commissions; 
it is to certain extents that Rowlands relers. 



376 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

counties to which its power extended. It is doubtful 
whether the provision of section 27 was put into force. 

After a pause of some years another Act, which 
reorganised the Welsh judicial system, made important 
provisions that were rendered necessary by the new arrange- 
ments of the statute of 1535, and enacted supplemental 
sections as to the law of property, was passed in the 34th 
and 35th years of Henry VIII. 

It is entitled "An Act for certain ordinances in the 
King's Majesty's Dominion and Principality of Wales." 
We extract the more relevant parts. 

It recites that — 

" Our Sovereign Lord the King's Majesty, of his tender 
zeal and affection that he beareth towards his loving 
and obedient subjects of his dominion, principality, and 
country of Wales, for good rule and order to be from 
henceforth kept and maintained within the same, whereby 
his said subjects may grow and arise to more wealth and 
prosperity, had devised and made divers sundry good and 
necessary ordinances, which his Majesty of his most 
abundant goodness, at the humble suit and petition of his 
said subjects of Wales, is pleased and contented to be 
enacted by the assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal 
and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, 
and by the authority of the same, in manner and form as 
hereafter ensueth " ; and enacts — 

"II. P'irst, that his Grace's said dominion, principality, 
and country of Wales be from henceforth divided into 
twelve shires ; of the which eight have been shires of long 
and ancient time, that is to say, the shires of Glamorgan, 
Caermarthen, Pembroke, Cardigan, Flint, Caernarvon. 
Anglesea, and Merioneth ; and four of the said twelve 
shires be newly made and ordained to be shires by an Act 
made at the Parliament holden at Westminster in the 
twenty-seventh year of our said sovereign lord's most noble 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 377 

reign, that is to say, the shires of Radnor, Brecknock, 
Montgomery, and Denbigh, over and beside the shire of 
Monmouth and divers other dominion, lordships, and 
manors in the marches of Wales, united and annexed to 
the shires of Salop, Hereford, and Gloucester as by the 
said late Act more plainly appeareth. 

"III. Ilem, That the limitations of the hundreds, of 
late made within the said shires by virtue of his Grace's 
commissions directed out of his Highness's Court of 
Chancery, and again returned into the same, shall stand in 
full strength, force, and effect, according to the said limita- 
tion ; except such of the same as sith that time hath 
been altered or changed by virtue of any Act or Acts 
of Parliament already made, or that shall be altered or 
changed by any Act or Acts in this present session to 
be made." 

After thus confirming the formation of the shires, and 
adopting the divisions of the shires into hundreds as 
certified by the commissioners, the Act by section 4 placed 
the Court of the President and Council of Wales and the 
Marches on a sure and" legal foundation. The statute then 
constitutes courts, to be called the " King's Great Sessions 
in Wales," which were to sit twice a year in every one of 
the twelve counties, and for this purpose were grouped into 
four circuits. The Justice of Chester was to keep the 
sessions of Denbigh, Flint, and Montgomery ; the Justice 
of North Wales those of Carnarvon, Merioneth, and 
Anglesey ; one person learned in the laws (to be appointed 
by the king) those of Radnor, Brecknock, and Glamorgan ; 
and one person learned in the laws (to be similarly 
appointed) those of Carmarthen, Pembroke, and Cardigan.^ 
Within the local limits of their several commissions, the 
jurisdiction of these Justices was made as " large and 
ample " as that of the Courts of King's Bench and Common 

' 34 & 35 Henry VIII. ss. 5 to ii. 



378 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

Pleas in England.^ Provision was made for the devising 
and custody of an original seal for each circuit. The seals 
of the three shires of North Wales and of Carmarthen, Pem- 
broke, and Cardigan were to be kept by the chamberlains of 
North and South Wales respectively ; those of Brecknock, 
Radnor, and Glamorgan, and of Denbigh and Montgomery, 
by the stewards and chamberlains of Brecknock and 
Denbigh respectively ; and the seal of Chester was to be 
and stand for the seal of Flint and to be kept by the 
chamberlain.^ These directions practically fixed the prin- 
cipal offices of the courts at the offices of the chamber- 
lains. Besides these seals, there were to be four judicial 
seals devised by the king, one for each circuit, to be kept 
by each Justice for the sealing of judicial process.^ 

For the discharge of the official business it was enacted 
that there were to be four prenotaries, one for each circuit, 
to be appointed by the king by letters patent, whose duty 
it should be to make out all judicial process, to enter all 
pleas and matters of record, and to attend upon the Justices 
on circuit.' There were also to be marshals and criers for 
each circuit, who were to be appointed by the Justices.^ 
These are the chief sections regulating the Great Sessions, 
but there are of course many others of a consequential 
character, dealing with fees and other matters necessarily 
requiring attention in creating new or reforming old courts. 
Besides the President and Council, and the Justices of the 

' find., ss. 12, 13. These sections made the Great Sessions " Superior 
Courts." Local equity jurisdiction had long existed in the old three North 
Welsh counties and the three south-western shires ; while section 9 of the 
27 Henry VIII. c. 26, provided for the creation of a Chancery and Exchequer 
at Brecknock for the three south-eastern counties, and at Denl>igh for Denbigh- 
shire and Montgomeryshire. Flintshire was subject to Chester in regard to 
Chancery matters. 

- Ibid., ss. 16-20. 

3 Ibid., ss. 29-31. 

^ Ibid., s. 44. 

'" Ibid., s. 45. 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 379 

Great Sessions, there were to be justices of the peace 
and quorum, as well as one custos rotuloruni for each 
shire. These officers were to be appointed by the Lord 
Chancellor of England by commission under the Great Seal, 
by the advice of the President, Council, and Justices, or 
three of them (the President being one) ; but the number of 
justices of the peace was not to exceed eight (excluding the 
President, the Council, the Justices, and the King's Attorney 
and Solicitor-General of each circuit, who were to be ex 
officio on the commission).^ 

These justices of the peace, or any two of them (one of 
whom was to be of the quoruni), were directed to keep and 
hold their sessions four times a year {i.e., Quarter Sessions), 
and at other times for urgent causes, as was done in 
England; and like "power and authority in all things" 
as was possessed by English justices of the peace was 
conferred upon them.- 

The Act also dealt with the offices of sheriff and coroner 
of the county, and constable of the hundred. In regard to 
the office of sheriff, it enacted that it should be only tenable 
for one year ; that the President, Council, and Justices of 
Wales, or three of them (whereof the President was to be 
one), should yearly nominate three substantial persons in 
each county for the office, and certify their names to the 
King's Council, so that the king may appoint one of the 
three so nominated ; and that the sheriff so appointed shall 
have the like patents and commissions as the sheriffs of 
English shires, but shall take the oaths and knowledges of 
recognizances before the President and Justices, or one of 
them. The authorities and duties of the Welsh sheriffs 
were made similar to those of their English colleagues. 
They were to keep their county courts monthl}', and their 
hundred courts for pleas under forty shillings, and to 

1 Ibid., ss. 53-55. 
- Ibid., ss. 53-59. 



38o THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

hold their tourn twice a year (after Easter and Michael- 
mas), as in England. It is also provided too, that, 
in the county and hundred courts, as well as in courts baron, 
the trial of issues should be by wager of law or verdict of 
six men at the pleasure of the party pleading the plea.^ 

Further, there were to be two coroners in every county, 
appointed as in England by writ de coronatore eligendo^ 
issuable, however, in the case of Welsh counties out of the 
Exchequer at Chester ; and two constables specially charged 
with the maintenance of the king's peace were to be 
appointed for each hundred by the justices of the peace, or 
two of them (one of whom was to be of the quorum), of 
each county.- 

To complete this brief account of the new or modified 
arrangements for the government ot Wales, we ought to add 
that stewards of any lordships or manors were empowered 
to continue to hold the accustomed courts — leets, law- 
days, or courts baron — and to hold pleas by plaint up to 
forty shillings in ev ery court baron, and exercise the same 
authority as the like stewards in England, and also that 
the mayors, bailiffs, and officers of corporations in Wales 
might hold courts according to their lawful grants or the 
custom of the towns, so long as they followed the law of 
England and not Welsh customs, and that issues joined in 
personal actions might be tried in such towns by a jury of 
six men.'^ 

Besides these matters of formal organisation, this Act 
declared or altered certain rules of law. The sections 
relating to the real property are worthy of attention. The}' 
made the laws of descent the same as that of England, and 

' Ibid., ss. 61-64; ss. 73-75. 

- J hid., ss. 68-70. 

■' //'/(/., ss. 23 and 26. The manorial coiuts were not to try felonies 
(section 24). The king, by section 27, took power to dissolve boroughs and 
create others. 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 381 

finally abolished the Welsh system of partition. They are 
as follows : — 

" XXV. And that from henceforth no leet nor law-day 
be kept by the steward or other officer of any lordship or 
manor in the said dominion of Wales, but in such lord- 
ships and places where it was accustomed to be kept before 
the making of the Act of Parliament concerning Wales, 
made in the twenty-sixth year of our said Sovereign 
Lord's reign ; so always the place where such court shall 
be kept, be meet and convenient for that purpose." 

" XCI. Item, That all manors, lands, tenements, mes- 
suages and other hereditaments, and all rights and titles to 
the same, in any of the said shires of Wales, descended 
to any manner, person, or persons sith the feast of the 
Nativity of St. John Baptist in the thirty-third year of 
our said Sovereign Lord's reign, or that hereafter shall 
descend, be taken, enjoyed, used, and holden as English 
tenure, to all intents according to the common laws of this 
realm of England, and not to be partable among heirs 
males after the custom of gavelkind, as heretofore in 
divers parts of Wales hath been used and accustomed. 
And that the same law, from and after the said feast of 
St. John Baptist, in the said thirty-third year, be used, 
taken and exercised in the said county of Monmouth, and 
in all such lordships and other places, as by virtue of the 
said Act made in the twenty-seventh year, or by any other 
Act or Acts made or to be made, were and shall be 
annexed, united, or knit to any of the shires of Salop, 
Hereford, Gloucester, or other shire ; any laws, usages, or 
customs heretofore had or used to the contrary thereof 
notwithstanding. 

" XCI I. Item, That no mortgages of lands, tenements, 
or hereditaments made or had after the said feast of 
St. John Baptist, which was in the said thirty-third year of 
the reign of our said Sovereign Lord, or that hereafter 



382 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

shall be had or made within any of the said shires or 
places, shall be hereafter allowed or admitted, otherwise 
than after the course of the common laws or statutes of 
the realm of England ; any usage or custom heretofore 
had to the contrary thereof notwithstanding. 

"XCIII. lUfu, It shall be lawful to all persons to aliene, 
sell, or otherwise put away their lands, tenements, and 
hereditaments within the said country or dominion of 
Wales, the county of Monmouth, and other places annexed 
to any of the shires of England, from them and their heirs, 
to any person or persons in fee-simple of fee-tail, for term 
of life, or for term of years, after the manner and according 
as is used by the laws of the realm of England ; any 
Welsh law or custom heretofore used in the said country 
or dominion of Wales to the contrary thereof notwith- 
standing. This article to take effect from and after the 
said feast of the Nativity of St. John Baptist, which was in 
the said thirty-third year of our said Sovereign Lord's reign." 

"CI. //t'/;/, where divers lordships marchers, ' as well in 
Wales, as in the borders of the same, now being by Act of 
Parliament annexed to divers shires of England, be lately 
come to the king's hands by suppression of houses, by 
purchase or attainders, and now be under the survey of the 
court of augmentations, or of the king's general surveyors, 
the liberties, franchises, and customs of all which lordships 
be lately revived by Act of Parliament, made in the thirty- 
second year of his most gracious reign ; ' nevertheless his 
Majesty willeth and commandeth, that no other liberties, 
franchises, or customs shall from henceforth be used, 
claimed, or exercised within the said lordships, nor any 
other lordships within Wales, or the county of Monmouth, 
whosoever be lord or owner of the same, but only such 
liberties, franchises, and customs as be given and com- 
manded to the lords of the same lordships, by force and 
virtue of the said Act of Parliament made for Wales in the 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 383 

said twenty-seventh year of his Grace's reign, and not 
altered nor taken away by this ordinance ; the said Act 
made in the said thirty-second year, or any other Act, grant, 
law, or custom to the contrary thereof notwithstanding." 

"CXXVII. Provided always, that all lands, tenements, 
and hereditaments, within the said dominion of Wales, 
shall descend to the heirs, according to the course of the 
common laws of England of the realm of England, 
according to the tenor and effect of this Act, and not to be 
used as gavelkind ; anything contained in these provisions 
or any of them to the contrary thereof notwithstanding." 

This measure (the clear drafting of which has won the com- 
mendation of eminent lawyers) completed the incorpora- 
tion of Wales and the marches into the realm of England. 
It assimilated the Welsh to the English counties for political 
and executive purposes, but left the former with a separate 
judicature. The new judicial system seems to have begun 
its work very quickly, and after a few years' trial, owing to 
the amount of the work and the difficulty of the questions 
that arose, it was found expedient to appoint an addi- 
tional judge on each circuit. Power to do so (which was 
duly acted on) was given to the Crown by the stat. 18 Eliz, 
c. 5 (1576), and the number of the judges was thus raised to 
eight. The Great Sessions absorbed the bulk of the more 
considerable business done in the old marcher courts, and 
no doubt also many matters that would have gone to the 
Court of the President and Council. They continued in 
active operation until 1830, and developed a special practice 
of their own, which varied but little on the different circuits, 
and which was based on the same fundamental principles 
as that of the English Superior Courts.^ 

' The earliest printed book on the practice of the Great Sessions is R. Rice 
Vaughan's " Practica Walliae " (Lond. 1672). See also Foley's " Practice 
of the Courts of Great Sessions for the several counties of Carmarthen, 
Pembroke, and Cardigan" (Lond. 1792) ; ^Abbot's "Jurisdiction and Practice 
of the Court of Great Sessions of Wales upon the Chester Circuit" (Lond. 



384 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

It is clear, notwithstanding the creation of the Great 
Sessions, that the Court of the President and Council, though 
not nearly so active as in the days of Lee, continued during 
the closing years of the sixteenth and the earlier part of the 
seventeenth century to deal with a great many causes ; but 
it must be borne in mind that these causes came not only 
from Wales, but also from the four English counties over 
which its jurisdiction had been extended since the time of 
Henry VII. ^ These four shires and Bristol were not men- 
tioned in the fourth section of the 34 & 35 Henry 
VIII. c. 26. The jurisdiction of the Court over the 
English counties therefore rested on an act of the pre- 
rogative, unless those counties were included within the 
term " marches " in that section. An agitation against the 
Court, so far as it exercised authority over any part of 
England, of which the principal leader was Sir Herbert 
Croft, a Herefordshire landowner and justice, arose in the 
early years of James I.'s reign. In 1605-6 a Bill to exempt 
the four counties passed through the House of Commons, 
but was dropped in deference to a conciliatory speech from 
the king. A like fate awaited a similar Bill in the next 
session. 

In 1607 Lord Eure was appointed Lord President, 
and fresh instructions were issued. These to some extent 
met the alleged grievances of the opponents of the English 
jurisdiction of the Court. The extraordinary powers of the 
President and Council were confined to Wales, but a civil 

J 795), and Oldnall's "The Practice of the Court of Great Sessions on the 
Carmarthen Circuit" (Lond. 1814). The last book is the most valuable. 
Oldnall, afterwards Sir W. Oldnall Russell, became Chief Justice of Bengal. 
Much information as to the history and the metliods of these courts will be 
found in the Reports and Minutes of Evidence of the Select Committee of the 
House of Commons appointed in 18 17, 1820, and 1821 ; and in the first 
Report of the Common Law Commissioners, issued in 1829. 

1 See the remarks of Demetus hereon in Owen's " Dialogue " ; and the 
extracts from Gerard's Discourses to Walsingham, piinte<l in Lewis's paper, 
nhi supra. 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 385 

jurisdiction in cases of debt and trespass where the damages 
were laid under 10/. was retained in the four shires. 
Croft and his friends were not, however, satisfied, and 
ultimately the validity of the English jurisdiction was 
submitted to the Privy Council, and by them referred to 
the judges. The king propounded the question "whether 
the article of the instructions touching hearing causes 
within the four shires under 10/. be agreeable to the law?" 
The case was argued in 1608 for six days. The opinion of 
the judges was given in writing on February 3rd, 1609, but 
was never published, and was therefore probably adverse to 
the Crown.i 

The instructions were not, however, withdrawn, and the 
agitation was continued. A fresh attempt at legisla- 
tion proved abortive ; but the movement was carried 
on in the country. The process of the Court was set at 
nought ; a petition signed by five thousand persons alleged 
it to be a nuisance ; it was presented as such by a 
grand jury ; numerous actions were threatened, and some 
brought, against its officers. But the king was firm 
in resisting what he looked at as an attack on his preroga- 
tive, and the resistance gradually died away, notwithstanding 
some revival of the agitation in 1614. In 161 7 Lord 
Compton succeeded Lord Eure as President of the Court* 
and fresh instructions were issued. By these new articles 
the concessions made in 1607 were withdrawn ; no distinc- 
tion was made between Wales and the four shires ; in both 
areas civil jurisdiction (limited to 50/. in personal actions) 
concurrent with that of the Superior Courts at Westminster 
was granted, and an unlimited jurisdiction where the plain- 
tiff's poverty was duly certified ; a full equitable and Star 
Chamber jurisdiction was also conferred, with the saving 
that no injunction was to be issued to the Superior 

' Coke led for those wlio attacked the legality of the jurisdiction, while 
Bacon did so for the President and Council. 

W.P. c c 



^86 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

Courts.^ It has been said on good authority that the abolition 
of the Court of Star Chambers by stat. 17 Charles I. c. 10, in 
effect took away those powers of the President and Council 
which were analogous to those exercised by the former 
court, and that it thenceforth only determined civil causes.^ 

Whether this view is right or not, the Court during the 
Commonwealth and the two succeeding reigns declined in 
importance, and immediately after the Revolution of 1688 
was abolished by the stat. i William & Mary, sess. i. c. 2, 
which recited that " the powers of the Lord President had 
been much abused, and that the institution had become a 
great grievance to the subject." 

Between 1688 and 1830 a considerable number of statutes 
affecting the Welsh courts were passed, but as they dealt 
chiefly with procedure and have now no importance it is 
unnecessary for us to mention them specifically.'^ No 
change of any moment was made by these Acts as to 
the constitution and jurisdiction of the Great Sessions.^ 
Though the Welsh courts were Superior Courts, the King's 
Bench had long affected to exercise a power of regula- 
tion and review over them, and by the end of the eighteenth 
century, by a series of judicial decisions, it had become 
settled law that plaintiffs might bring in the courts at 
Westminster actions concerning lands in Wales, and also 
personal actions (which might have been commenced in the 
Welsh courts) where the damages claimed exceeded 50/.^ 
Notwithstanding, however, the encroachments on their area 
of authority, the Welsh courts continued to do an increasing 

• See Heath's preface to Bacon's " Argument," ul>i supra, for all these facts. 

- So says Heath, ubi supra, sed quare? 

^ See Oldnall's " Practice," ubi supra. Introduction. 

■* One of the Acts, however, it may be well to mention — that of 20 Geo. II. 
c. 42, which enacted that in all Acts of Parliament in which " in England " is 
mentioned, Wales shall l)e deemed to be included. 

•' See the argument referred to above in Hargrave's " Law Tracts," as to the 
encroachments of the King's Bench, &c. 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 387 

amount of business, seemingly without any greater com- 
plaints against their procedure than was indulged in against 
that of the courts at Westminster. It is not clear when the 
movement for the abolition of the Welsh courts began, but it 
probably first arose (except merely by way of suggestion) 
as part of the larger agitation for reforms in all branches of 
the law, and in the procedure of all the courts, which dis- 
tinguished the first quarter of this century. It is, however, 
interesting to note that Burke, speaking in the House of 
Commons on the i8th December, 1780, and referring to the 
Welsh judicial system, said it had been proposed to add a 
judge to each of the courts at Westminster, and thought 
that arrangement would be sufficient for Wales ; but that 
his original thought was to suppress five out of the eight 
Welsh justices, and to throw the counties into districts.^ 
Burke was, however, not attacking the Welsh courts on 
general grounds, but on account of their alleged unnecessary 
expense to the Crown. 

It was not till 1 817 that some definite step was taken 
in regard to the matter. In that year a select committee 
was appointed by the House of Commons to inquire 
into the condition of the judicial system of Wales and 
Chester, and in 1820 and 1821 like committees sat. The 
evidence taken by and the reports of these bodies contain 
full information about the Welsh courts, their merits and 
their defects. Nothing was done, however, until after the 
first report of the Common Law Commissioners, who 
were appointed in consequence of the attack led by 
Brougham on the abuses and defects of the courts and 
the whole judicial system in his celebrated speech of 
February, 1828. The first report of the Commissioners 
dealt chiefly with the Welsh judicature. It recommended 

' Speech of Edmund Bui-ke on a " Plan for the better security of the 
in lependtiice of Parlianient, and the economical reformalion of the civil and 
other establishments.'' 

C C 2 



388 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

the extension of the jurisdiction of the Superior Courts 
of England to Chester and Wales, the appointment of 
three additional judges (one to each of the common law 
courts), the abolition of the Courts of Great Sessions, as 
well as certain subsidiary steps. 

The Government adopted the principal recommendations 
of the Commissioners ; and on the 9th March the Attorney- 
General (Sir J. Scarlett), after a somewhat perfunctory 
speech that showed little grasp of the real issues, moved 
for leave to bring in " a Bill for the more effectual Ad- 
ministration of Justice in England and Wales," embodying 
in substance the plan of the Commissioners. O'Connell 
opposed the Bill as useless to the public. Sir J. Owen^ 
protested against it ; but C. W. Wynn- on the other hand 
supported the Government. The best speech was made by 
John Jones,^ who pertinaciously opposed the Bill, on the 
main ground that while the need for a reform of the Welsh 
system was admitted, that did not involve the need for 
its abolition ; he defended the Welsh judges ; he objected 
to the interests of Wales being made the ladder by which 
ambitious barristers might climb to such preferment as 
three additional judgeships necessarily included ; the Welsh 
people, he said, were attached to their institutions, and 
did not desire the abolition of these courts ; the Bill 
was being forced upon them. After a brief debate the 
motion was agreed to without a division, and the Bill read 
a first time.* 



'Then M.P. for Pembrokeshiie (born 1776; died 1861, having sat fifty-one 
years in the House). Williams' "Pari. Hist.," p. 159. 

-M.P. for Montgomery (Privy Councillor 1822; member of Lord 
LiverpooPs Administration ; Secretary at War and in Cabinet 1830-1 ; died 
1850). Williams' "Pari. Hist.," p. 145. 

2 M.P for Carmarthen (b. 1792; d. 1857; barrister-at-law, and Chairman 
of Quarter Sessions for Cardigan ; afterwards member for Carmarthenshire). 
Williams" " Pari. Hist.," pp. 49, 55. 

■* Hansard (2nd series), vol. 23, col. 54. 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 389 

The second reading was taken on April 27th. 
Frankland Lewis ^ and Colonel Wood- made criticisms 
on the Bill. The latter, while not denying that the time 
had come for the assimilation of the Welsh to the 
English system, pointed out the characteristic of the Welsh 
people, and how largely the Welsh language was used by 
the lower classes ; he thought the juries ought to be Welsh, 
and asked how many gentlemen in the House would like 
to give evidence in French in a case in which the life of a 
fellow-countryman was at stake ? John Jones subsequently 
spoke, attacking the Commissioners, with very considerable 
reason on his side, as being completely ignorant of Wales 
and its inhabitants, and complained of their unfair treatment 
of him and other Welshmen who had assisted them, and again 
insisted that there was no demand for the Bill in Wales. 
C. W. Wynn argued in its favour. Rice Trevor^ urged 
that the Bill would entail great additional expense on 
Welsh suitors. The Attorney-General briefly replied, and 
the Bill was read a second time without a division, 
passed through Committee, but was re-committed on June 
1 8th, and read a third time on July 17th ;* and subse- 
quently passed through the Lords without difficulty — 
notwithstanding the adverse opinion of Lord Eldon, then 
no longer the autocrat of that House — and duly became 
law. 

By this Act (the 1 1 George IV. and [ William IV. c. 70) 
an additional judge was appointed to each of the three 



-M.P. for Radnorshire (b. 1780; d. 1855; Privy Councillor 1828; held 
various offices, and was Chairman of the Poor Law Commission, 1834-9 ! ^ 
member of the Commission of Inquiry into the Rebecca Riots, 1843 5 created a 
baronet 1846). Williams' "Pari. Hist.,' p. 176. 

-M.P. for Breconshire (b. 1778; d. i860). Williams' " Pari. Hist., p. 20. 

•*M.P. for Carmarthenshire (b. 1795; d. 1869; only son of George Lord 
Dynevor, and succeeded his father as second Lord Dynevor in 1852), 
Williams' "Pari. Hist.," p. 49. 
■• Hansard (2nd series), vol. 24, col. 104. 



390 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

Superior Courts — the King's Bench, the Common Pleas, and 
the Exchequer of Pleas. The jurisdiction of these and 
other English Superior Courts was extended over Chester 
and Wales, while that of the Great Sessions was to cease 
from the commencement of the Act. It was enacted that 
assizes should thenceforth be held by the judges of the 
superior Courts, as in England. It was arranged that 
there should be two circuits — a North Wales and Chester, 
and a South Wales and Chester circuit. A single judge 
was to do the work in the six counties of North Wales, and 
another to go alone through the counties of South Wales 
(except Glamorganshire), and that both judges .should unite 
for the assizes of Cheshire and Glamorganshire. Proper 
provisions were inserted for the pensioning of the officials 
of the Welsh courts and effecting the change without dela)' 
or inconvenience, and certain useful amendments in regard 
to the procedure of the common law courts were also made. 
It can hardly be said that the Welsh members made the 
most of their case. The majorit)- sat on the Government 
side, and most of them were countr}' gentlemen who rarely 
took part in debate ; but a meed of praise is due to the 
stand made by John Jones of Carmarthen against the Bill 
at a time when the very courts which the Government 
proposed to substitute for the Welsh ones were themselves 
unreformed and carried on their work under a s}'stem of 
practice universall}' condemned. The broad questions, 
whether it is or is not expedient to centralise the adminis- 
tration of justice (in regard to all except the more trivial 
disputes) so completely as was, and in a less degree still is, 
the case in this country ; whether the P^nglish circuit s\-stem 
is better than a system of provincial courts of first instance 
controlled by a Court of Appeal ; whether it was fair to 
deprive of its separate judicial organisation, a part of the 
countr}' where a different language was, in most of the 
counties, habitually spoken b>' the large majority of the 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 391 

inhabitants, and to allow Scotland, where English was 
even then almost exclusively spoken, to retain its own 
courts, were not raised with any clearness. No doubt 
there were many abuses, grievances, and defects connected 
with the Welsh system. The judges were permitted to 
sit in Parliament, and to practise at the Bar off their own 
circuits ; the appointments to the Bench were often made 
for political reasons ; no pensions being attached to their 
oflfice, the judges often clung to their posts when they 
were really too infirm to do their duties properly ; they 
did not change their circuits, and some became too familiar 
with the barristers who came before them, and the country 
gentlemen in the neighbourhood, thus giving rise on occasion 
to grave suspicion of partiality ; the term of the sessions 
(six days) was often not long enough for the cautious and 
patient trial of the causes ; the procedure was antiquated 
and complicated ; the territorial limits of jurisdiction gave 
rise to difficulties. All those things are true, and show 
that a reform of the system was quite necessary ; but every 
one of those ills could have been removed by legislation, 
and not one of them (except perhaps the possibility of too 
great familiarity with a particular neighbourhood) affords 
an argument against a properly-constituted system of 
provincial courts. 

For some years the Act inflicted considerable hardship 
on Welsh suitors. There being no county courts on the 
modern basis till the Act of 1846 had passed, and the local 
courts having only jurisdiction up to forty shillings, it was 
necessary to bring an action in London even to recover 
trivial debts, and as the local equitable jurisdiction had 
been determined, the administration of the smallest estate 
had to be effected through th- medium of the Court of 
Chancery. The proceedings, too, in an action commenced 
in a Superior Court and tried at a Welsh assize, were much 
more dilatory and expensive than those in a suit of the 



392 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

same kind in the Great Sessions. Again, though the 
Welsh judges were not the equals of the English judges 
in status at the Bar, or, as a rule, in legal attainments, 
they came in a very little time after their appointments 
into close touch with the people and generally secured 
their confidence. For many years the want of sympathy 
of the English judges going the Welsh circuits, their 
ill-concealed assumption that Welshmen were beings 
inferior to Englishmen, their apparent total inability to 
understand that a man who could speak a few words of 
a foreign language in the market-place or society might 
decline to give evidence in it in a court of justice and 
yet be an honest man, produced very often great popular 
(though in those days not overt) indignation, and some- 
times grave miscarriage of justice. The establishment 
of the modern county courts, and the gentler and more 
tactful treatment of Welsh witnesses by the judges of the 
High Court during recent years, have done much to remove 
any grievances special to the people of Wales in regard to 
the administration of justice.^ 

We have now only to add a few words about the legal 
profession in Wales as affected by the Act of 1830. The 
statute enabled the attorneys and solicitors of the Welsh 
courts to obtain like positions in the common law courts at 
Westminster and in the Court of Chancery. A consider- 
able but not numerous Bar had been in the habit of attend- 
ing the four old circuits.- What took place on the coming 

' Tlie more vigilant action of the Welsh members in the House of Commons 
since 1868 has no douljt contriliuted to this more satisfactory state of things. 

- We are indebted to Mr. W. Trevor Parkins, of the North Wales Circuit, 
Chancellor of the diocese of St. Asaph, for ihe following information. Before 
1830 there was a Bar mess for each Welsh Circuit. A book in MS. containing 
the " Records" of the Chester Circuit from 1788 to 1830 (now in the possession 
of Sir Horatio Lloyd) seems to be the only minute-liook of the old circuit 
messes extant. From 1790 the minutes of the Chester Circuit were regularly 
kept. The Attorney-General of the Circuit, or in his absence his deputy, 
presided at the High Court. The "Records" contain the names of th? 



LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY. 393 

into operation of the new Act is uot quite clear ; ^ but it 
seems that two Bar messes - were formed, on much the same 
plan as, and with rules very similar to, those of the 
English circuits ""- — one for the North Wales and the other for 
the South Wales Circuit, which united to form one mess at 
Chester and in Glamorganshire respectively. The number 
of barristers practising on the Welsh circuits was at first 
and for many years very small; ^ but of late years, principally 

members present at each High Court, an account of the expenses of the wine, 
of the fines imposed, and of the jokes that were made and deemed worth 
setting down. Among the more eminent members whose names occur are : — 
Richard Richards, afterwards Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer ; Charles 
Abbot, Speaker of the House of Commons ; Charles Wetherell, who became , 
Attorney-General of England ; C. W. Williams Wynn (see note 2, p. 388. 
above) ; John Jervis, afterwards Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. The 
members of the mess frequently held mess dinners in London. The last of 
such meetings took place at the Thatched House Tavern, on May 19th, 1830. 
The Bar of the Chester Circuit was composed of men who belonged to othei 
Circuits (usually the Northern or Oxford), and a few equity barristers. Many of 
them did not follow the Circuit into Wales. In addition to the judges mentioned 
above, Mr. Justice John Williams, Mr. Justice Littledale, Baron Parke (Lord 
Wensleydale), Mr. Justice Wiglitman, and Mr. Justice Crompton practised 
at Chester Great Sessions, After 1830 Chester became the common ground 
for all the members of the oid Welsh Circuits. Thus Vaughan Williams 
(afterwards Justice of the Common Pleas), who belonged to the Carmarthen 
Circuit, exercised his right to come to Chester. 

' When I became junior of the South Wales Circuit in 1877 the books of the 
mess handed to me only contained the minutes of business from about the 
middle of the fifties. — D. B. J. Mr. Trevor Parkins informs us that the 
existing minute-book of the North Wales Circuit (in the narrower sense) only 
goes back to 1872, and that of the Chester mess only to 18S0. There are no 
records of either mess for the period from 1830 to 1872. 

'This is substantially true, but we are informed that technically the members 
of the North Wales Division regard the Bar mess in the Welsh counties as a 
distinct mess from that of Chester. 

■' £■£"■ , members of the mess were not allowed to travel on circuit in any 
public conveyance ; nor to reside during the Assizes at any hotel or inn, but 
had to take private lodgings ; members were not permitted to dine with 
solicitors during the Assizes, &c. The two former rules were modified before 
1877. Members were then allowed to go to hotels, provided they engaged 
private sitting-rooms, and to travel by rail, but only in a first-class carriage 
after joining circuit. 

■' They can, however, boast of three members who joined after 1830 and have 



394 7^^^ WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, viii.) 

owing to the great increase of the work in Glamorganshire, 
has been greatly augmented.^ The business in the other 
counties since the large extension of the county court 
jurisdiction has very greatly diminished, and there is a 
tendency to putting down the more substantial cases for 
trial at Swansea or Cardiff; and the great amount of work 
done in the industrial c.nd commercial centres of South 
Wales has led to the " localising " of several members of 
the Bar.- 

Having touched upon the principal points in the con- 
stitutional and legal development of the Welsh counties 
from the time of Edward 1,, we must now turn to the 
history of land tenure in Wales, looked at from an economic 
rather than from a legal standpoint. 

readied high judicial office — Lord Halslniry, tiie present Lord Chancellor; 
the late Sir William Milbourne James, Lord Justice of Appeal ; and the 
late Sir William Grove, Judge of the High Court of Justice. 

' In 1843 we tind from a letter of Carlyle's (Fronde's " Life of Thomas 
Carlyle in London," vol. i., p. 312) that about twenty barristers were attentl- 
ing the summer Assizes at Carmarthen. Carlyle was staying at Abergwili 
with the Bishop, and, the Assi/.es being on, the Bishop, following a not unusual 
custom, had invited the Judge and Bar to dinner. C. calls the entertainment 
"an explosion of dulness, champagne, and efmiti," and makes the ill-natured 
and conceited remark that "the advocates generally filled me with a kind of 
shudder ! To think that had I once had 200/. I should have been that ! ' 

" The technical name of the former North and South Wales Circuits is now 
"The Welsh Circuit,'' but the North Wales and South Wales "Divisions" 
are recognised. 



CHAPTER IX. 

HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 
§ I. — The W els J I Tribal Sy stein. 

It is not proposed to enterat great length upon the history 
of ancient land tenures in Wales. But it seems a necessary 
part of our duty to offer the best explanation we are able of 
the main facts in Welsh economic history which, commencing 
with the general prevalence throughout the greater part of 
Wales of the tribal system above described, have resulted in 
the present conditions of ownership and tenure. 

It maybe well to mention at the outset that the evidence 
of the main facts of the Welsh tribal system prevalent 
under the chieftains or princes before the conquest is not 
by any means confined to vague tradition, or even to the 
codes and treatises of various authority in which from the 
time of Howel the Good the customs and customary law 
prevalent in different districts of Wales were from time to 
time collected. The evidence for the main facts relevant 
to the object of this inquiry rests upon the solid ground of 
the actual surveys or extents made by Norman surveyors 
in great detail and with the especial object of recording 
the condition of things as to tenure which was found to 
exist in North Wales after the conquest by Edward I. and 
which was the result of the customary tribal law prevalent 
before the conquest. 

The extent of greatest value and detail is that of the 



396 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

Lordship of Denbigh made in 8 Edward III., but other 
extents embrace Anglesey, Carnarvonshire, and Merioneth- 
shire and the scattered possessions of the see of St. Davids 
in four counties of South Wales. 

The main facts relevant to this inquiry are those which 
relate to the customary law as to land under the tribal 
system itself, and the results it left behind it as regards 
land tenure in Wales after the English conquest. 

So far as the part of Wales conquered by Cuneda and 
his sons is concerned, the Cymry appear not to have been 
the original inhabitants, but a conquering tribe ; and it 
appears most probable that their coming into Wales in the 
fifth and sixth centuries partook of the nature of a tribal 
migration from Cumbria.^ 

The result naturally followed that a permanent division 
of classes was established according to tribal custom, 
between the conquering tribesmen and the conquered 
people, so that the inhabitants of Wales from that time 
onward were divided into two classes — the free tribesmen 
and the non-tribesmen, or strangers in blood. 

First, as to the free tribesmen. The)- were bound 
together from the chieftain, down to the humblest tribes- 
man by the tie of blood relationship. They carefully 
guarded their pedigree and purity of blood, and the several 
kindreds or groups of kinsmen within certain degrees of 
relationship were mutually liable to one another for injuries 
and crimes. 

It is not needful to enter into details as to the structure 
of tribal society, except so far as to explain the result of 
the tribal organisation upon the occupation of land ; and 
the main point about this is the fact that the tribal unit of 
occupation of land was the kindred or family group and not 
the individual. The rights, moreover, of the family group 

' See above, pp.118 — 120, as to the conquest of Gwyned by Cuneda and his 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 397 

were vested in its patriarchal head, and during the lifetime 
of this head of the group all the surbordinate members of 
it, down to great-grandchildren or second cousins, instead 
of being joint tenants of the family rights as regards land 
had apparently only tribal rights of maintenance. They 
were regarded not as, in the modern sense, joint owners 
with equal shares in the land, but rather as the sons and 
grandsons of a patriarchal family under the patriarchal 
rule of its head. 

Thus tribal society was in no true sense a republic or 
democracy in the modern sense of the term, but rather an 
aristocratic group of families organised on a patriarchal 
basis. 

When the English surveyors, therefore, in the fourteenth 
century made their extents after the conquest, they found 
and described this or that district as occupied, not by 
individuals, but by this or that family group, or, using the 
Welsh term, this or that wele or gively {i.e., bed or family 
stock), consisting of the progenies or descendants down to 
great-grandchildren of the original head of the family 
group. Each of these family groups held together till a 
final division took place amongst the great-grandchildren 
of its original head, and it was called by the surveyors the 
" wele of so-and-so," although he and his sons may have 
been long dead. And the reason why the " wele " of the 
original head of the family thus held together long after 
his death and the death of his sons is given in the codes. 
It was the tribal rule that on the death of the original head 
the original wele was divided into the equal weles of his 
sons, who were brothers, that after the death of all the sons 
the tribal rights of the family were subject to a re-division 
among the grandsons or cousins per capita and not per 
stirpes, and that, lastly, on the death of all the sons and 
grandsons, a final re-division could be claimed by the great- 
grandsons or second cousins per capita and not per stirpes. 



398 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

Hence the original wele of the great-grandfather was 
retained as the unit of the family rights until all the 
grandsons were dead, on which event the final division of 
family rights among great-grandsons took place and fresh 
family groups were formed. Thus it came to pass that the 
gxvely or family so constituted under tribal custom con- 
tinued after the conquest, and was described in the extents 
by the English surveyors as the ordinary tribal unit of land 
occupation. 

The result was that the surveyors describe this district, 
and that as in the occupation, not of individuals, but of the 
zvele or gwely of so-and-so, or, as mostly happened, of 
several such family groups, having undivided shares in the 
tribal occupation of the district. 

The surveys or extents enable us further to realise that 
this occupation in most districts was that of a pastoral, 
rather than agricultural, people. The tribal rights of land 
occupation held by the family groups were thus mainly 
rights of grazing over considerable districts in common 
with other family groups. Each wele or family group, no 
doubt, held in severalty its own roughly constructed home- 
steads or tvTtynau, with cattle-yards and crofts for winter 
protection and feeding, whilst the mass of the land, 
mountain an 1 moor and waste, was held by them in 
common. And, further, these families of tribesmen, with 
their cattle, often had both winter and summer homesteads 
and grazings, and were easily shifted from one district to 
another when changes of population or other necessities of 
tribal life might require it. 

Another peculiarity of this tribal system of land occu- 
pation may be noticed as increasing the difficulty of 
description by English surveyors, who approached it full 
of English and manorial notions. All the landed rights 
of the family group being vested in its head, it was difficult 
to define the rights of the ordinary tribesman. 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 399 

When a new tribesman was born into the tribe, both 
parents being of full tribal blood, he remained, according 
to Welsh custom or tradition, more or less rigidly adhered 
to, under the paternal lordship of his father, and was main- 
tained by his father till he was fourteen. At fourteen, he 
claimed from the kindred, and not from his father, his full 
tribal rights. That is, he was apparently provided with 
cattle, independently of his father, and became liable to 
answer for his own misdeeds, and his father was no longer 
obliged to maintain him. When he married, if not before, 
he was allowed to establish himself in a separate home- 
stead or tydyn, and became, like his fellow-tribesmen, a 
small dairy farmer on his own account, putting his cattle 
into the common herd along with the rest. He also had a 
right to join in the common ploughing of portions of the 
waste. This tribal provision for his maintenance he got 
from the kindred to which he belonged, and not by inheri- 
tance from his father. But he also had a prospective right 
or chance of one day, if he lived long enough, becoming 
the successor of his father's rights or privileges, and of 
becoming, on the death of his ancestors, the head of a 
wele. The ordinary tribesman, therefore, was in a double 
position : he was a member of a kindred with tribal rights of 
maintenance, and not a joint tenant of any particular land. 
And at the same time, prospectively, and by possibility, he 
might succeed to the headship of a wele, and so become 
the person in whom the landed rights of a family group 
were vested. 

This, according to traditional theory, and to some extent 
in practice, was the complicated condition of things in 
North Wales at the conquest as regards the free tribesmen. 
The English surveyors described it as best they could, and 
the Crown lawyers judged it right under the terms arranged 
on the conquest to let these Welsh family units of land 
occupation continue under Welsh custom. 



400 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

The statute of Rhudlan left them alone, to follow the 
natural course of disintegration sure to result from the 
relaxation of customary ties and the division and sub- 
division by gavelkind generation after generation, till the 
statute of Henry VIII., when English law was extended to 
Wales, and the laws of primogeniture and English tenure 
were introduced. 

Then, at last, after many generations of confusion, it 
became necessary for the Crown lawyers to bring whatever 
remained of the tribal rights of the descendants of the 
free tribesmen under some category of English law, and 
so define their rights for the future. 

But there is also the case of the non-tribesmen or 
strangers in blood to be considered before we go further. 

The distinguishing mark of this class was the absence 
o{ tribal blood, and this, in North Wales, was technically 
and under tribal tradition an impassable barrier between 
the stranger and the tribesmen for ever ; whilst in South 
Wales it only could be bridged by continued residence 
under a chieftain for nine generations, or by repeated inter- 
marriage with tribeswomen for four generations. 

The typical tenure of these non-tribesmen — who were 
settled upon the estates of the chieftain or head tribesmen, 
and called taeogs or aittts or aiituds — was that which in 
the extents is called by the common name of " trefgevery," 
the holding of tir cyfrif, or " register land," as opposed to 
the tribesmen's holdings in gwelys. Its peculiarity was 
that there were no rights of inheritance, no family groups 
with their heads, but that in the hamlet or group of these 
non-tribesmen there was absolute equality between all 
males above fourteen. Parents and children, side by side, 
all were treated alike, except that the youngest son kept 
house with his father, and had no separate recognition. 

This was the normal tenure of non -tribesmen, but as 
regards some classes of strangers, after residence for four 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 401 

generations in the same place, kindred was recognised in 
the non-tribesman's family, but from that moment and for 
ever after its descendants became adscnpti glebes. 

Hence the surveyors when they came to make the 
extents found two classes of non-tribesmen : those living 
in groups or hamlets with no rights of inheritance and in 
what was called trefgevery, and others occupying in families 
orgwelys, like the free tribesmen, though not acknowledged 
as belonging to the tribe. Both these classes of non- 
tribesmen were permanently attached to the land of the 
chieftain or of some landed tribesman, and hence, rightly 
or wrongly, w^ere naturally classed by the surveyors as 
nativi or bond tenants, and so regarded until Tudor times. 
Before tracing the after history of the tribesmen and 
non-tribesmen, there remains to be noticed the position of 
the chieftain and his family and the territorial arrangements 
which were connected with the chieftainship. 

Now at the time of the extents and long before, in the 
time of the Welsh princes, the country was divided into 
cymwds, two of these generally making a cantref. 

In each cymwd or sometimes in each cantref there was 
a tract of land set aside for the chieftain's residence. It 
formed an estate which the surveyors very naturally called 
a manor, and which in many respects resembled a manor. 
On this estate was what may be described as the home 
farm of the chieftain, called his viaerdref, worked by groups 
of non-tribesmen or nativi under the management of a 
land maer and other officers. The chief also had pasture 
land allotted to him for his cattle, and all this he held in 
severalty. 

There was one prince of North Wales with his chief 
palace at Aberfifraw in Anglesey. But the prince was not 
an isolated chieftain chosen from the ranks of the tribes- 
men, but the head of a family of chieftains, a kind of royal 
family with aristocratic privilege. And though the palaces 
W.P. D D 



402 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

of the other cymwds in his jurisdiction nominally belonged 
to the chieftain, they appeared to have often become the 
residence of sub-chieftains, members of his family, and in 
later times came easily to be regarded as the property of 
the subordinate chieftains under the prince. 

Upon the home farm or maerdref were settled families 
of non-tribesmen. They were called the men of the 
maerdref, and by their services the maerdref was cultivated. 
Besides this, there were at Aberffraw groups or hamlets of 
non-tribesmen holding in trefgevery and more closely 
attached to the chieftain's estate than the other similar 
groups scattered over the cymwds like the gwelys of the 
free tribesmen. 

The revenue or provision for the prince or chieftain 
consisted mainly of — 

(1) the produce of his maerdref or home farm worked 
by non-tribesmen ; 

(2) the rents in kind and various services due from the 
clusters of non-tribesmen, including his right to quarter 
his retinue and dogs upon them when on his hunting, 
hawking, or other expeditions ; 

(3) the food rents of the free tribesmen which had long 
been commuted into money under the name of tunc. 

This brief statement of the main features of the tribal 
system ^ must be taken as applying chiefly to North Wales. 
Though from the evidence of the Welsh codes the system 
was prevalent at one time in South Wales also, the latter 
had been subject to the disintegrating effects of Norman 
conquest centuries earlier than the final conquest of North 
Wales by Edward I. And this remark applies also to the 
border districts which had fallen under the power of the 
Lords Marchers. 

' For the authorities on the main points of the foregoing brief summary, 
see "The Tribal .System in Wales," by Mr. F. Seebohm, one of the Com- 
missioners, who has for many years made a special study of the subject. 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 403 

§ 2. — Results of the Conquest of North Wales. 

Such being the positions of the chieftains, tribesmen, and 
non-tribesmen under the tribal system, the next question 
is how they were severally treated at the time of the 
conquest of North Wales by Edward I. 

First as regards the chieftains. All their rights were 
transferred with but little alteration to the Prince of Wales 
or the Crown. The chieftains' demesnes seem to have been 
maintained in the same position as before. They were 
naturally regarded as manors to which were attached the 
old chieftains' rights within the cymwds of which they were 
the centres. Thus both tribesmen and non-tribesmen — 
now regarded as free tenants and nativi — became tenants 
of the Crown, with no mesne lord between them and the 
Crown, until from time to time grants were made of the 
manors or cymwds, and the rights appendant thereto, to 
subjects, who thereupon assumed the position of lords of 
manors or cymwds as the case might be. 

As regards the tenants, at the time of the surveys made 
after the conquest, the value of the customary rents in 
kind for services both of tribesmen and non-tribesmen 
were severally ascertained and recorded, and probably 
thenceforth in the case of both tribesmen and non- 
tribesmen money was more often paid than the actual 
services. 

During the period which followed it turned out to be a 
great protection and advantage to both classes of tenants 
— both the tribesmen and non-tribesmen — that their services 
and dues of all kinds had been commuted, for the most 
part, into fixed money payments. It not only saved them 
from any attempt to grind more out of them, but also closed 
the door against arbitrary exactions and oppressive use of 
the serv^iccs. The extents made after the conquest became, 
as the Domesday survey did to the English tenant, the 

D D 2 



404 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

authority to which both classes of tenants could appeal, 
for it seems to have been tacitly assumed by the English 
surveyors that the money value of the food rents and 
services recorded in the surveys was to be religiously 
followed ever after without alteration. 

In several special cases examined, the amount of the 
quitrents thus arrived at on the conquest of North Wales 
remained substantially unchanged through all vicissitudes 
(not excepting the Black Death and the rebellion of Owen 
Glyndwr), notwithstanding great reduction of population 
and forfeitures for joining in rebellion, and death in the 
wars. 

The reason of this seems to be that the commuted food 
rents and services were regarded as chargeable upon a 
certain place or district rather than upon the persons or 
families occupying it. 

Vast numbers of the ancient quitrents remain payable 
to the present day to the Crown or to grantees of the 
Crown. Others have from time to time been bought up 
and got rid of, and all are very trivial in their amount, 
very many of them under one shilling. 

No doubt in part the extreme smallness of the quitrents 
is the natural result of the sub-division of holdings among 
heirs by gavelkind between the time of the conquest of 
Edward I. and the statute of Henry VIII., by which the 
law of primogeniture was extended to Wales. 

There was, however, another economic cause at work, 
which in Wales, as in England, silently acted in favour 
of the peasantry wh-'-se services had Lecn commuted in 
the fourteenth century into fixed money payments. 

Granted that the descendants of the old tenants con- 
tinued to pay the same quitrent in shillings in 1600 as 
their ancestors or predecessors in title did in 1300, they 
gained by the fact that the quitrent of 1600 was paid in 
shillings which contained only 93 grains of silver, whilst 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 405 

the shilling's of 1300 contained 266 grains, t.e., nearly three 
times as much. Nor was this all, for in addition there had 
taken place during the interval, apart from the depreciated 
weight of the coin, a general rise in prices and in the value 
of the land. 

The Welsh tenants were chiefly dairy or cattle farmers, 
and during the three centuries since the conquest the price 
of cattle had increased at a much higher rate than the 
price of corn. 

Some measure of the enormous amount of relief which 
accrued to the tenants through the change in prices may 
be arrived at by a comparison of the burden of the pay- 
ments of the tenants of the Prince's manor of Aberffraw 
at the time of the conquest and in the time of Queen 
Elizabeth. 

The dues and services of the tenants of Aberffraw, as 
valued in the extent of 1294, amounted to 21/. li-. yd. per 
annum. 

A few years after, in an assessment made for a 15th, 
the cattle of the tenants (including oxen, cows, bullocks, 
horses, and sheep) were valued at 137/. The annual pay- 
ment of the tenants to the chieftain amounted thus to 
about one-sixth of the value of their cattle.^ 

The descendants of these tenants in the time of Queen 
Elizabeth paying, as, in fact, they probably, roughly 
speaking, were doing, the same quitrent of 21/. is. yd., 



1 A.D. 1300. A. D. 1600. 

— £ — £ 

34 at 6oj-. (Rogers, Vol. v., 382-348) 411 
44 



137 oxen at 5^. . 

262 cows at 3 J'. 4d. . 

38 three year olds at 2s. bd. 

91 two year olds at is-. 

71 horses at 5^. 

36 mares at 5^-. 

735 sheep at dd. 



at 50J 750 

9 at 40J-. ..... 182 

^^ I at 100^ 535 

9' 
iS at 8s. 294 

137 2,172 



4o6 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

would be paying only about x^o^^ P^''^ o^ ^^^ value of 
precisely the same head of cattle at the increased prices 
of the day. 

Thus the burden of the quitrents in the time of Queen 
P^izabeth throughout Wales may be taken as only a small 
fraction of what their payments had been under the Prince 
of Wales before the conquest. In other words, supposing 
that there had been no disturbance from pestilence, 
rebellions, or wars, and that the descendants of the old 
tenants had remained in occupation of their old holdings 
during the three centuries following the conquest, they 
would have practically grown, as English copyholders 
generally did under the same circumstances, into absolute 
owners, charged with a merely nominal and trivial quitrent 
of a few pence at most per acre. 

But it must be remembered that the customary tribal 
tenures in gwelys or family groups with ultimate divisions 
among great-grandsons in gavelkind had been left to 
follow its natural course till the introduction of English 
law by the statute of Henry VIII. The case, therefore, 
was not so clear as the case of English copyholders of 
holdings in individual ownership. How far the old 
tribal custom of vesting the landed interest of the gwelys 
solely in the patriarchal head had survived or worn itself 
out under changed circumstances may be a matter of 
doubt, but so far as it may have survived it might well 
have resulted in confusion by raising the obvious question 
whether the head of the gwely was not the only person 
to be regarded as the tenant, and what were the rights, 
in that case, of his more or less numerous descendants. 

The abolition of the custom of gavelkind, and substi- 
tution of the law of primogeniture, would, in such case, 
ultimately disinherit all but one son of the person regarded 
as the tenant, whether tribesman or non-tribesman. 

Such a statute, however, was not likely to take general 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 407 

effect all in a moment, and accordingly it fell upon the 
Crown lawyers of Queen Elizabeth for the most part to 
disentangle the knotty questions which, after 300 years of 
silent decay, the tribal system had left behind it. 

T/ie Application of English Law binder Queen Elizabeth 
in North Wales. — This was the condition of things when 
the Crown lawyers of Queen Elizabeth had to undertake 
the task of bringing the various classes of Welsh tenants 
within some category of English law. Welsh tenures had 
been abolished, and it had to be settled what the future 
status of both classes of Welsh tenants was to be. The 
families of free tribesmen had, during the interval since 
the conquest, been regarded in a vague way as freeholders 
under the lordships which had grown out of the cymwds. 
And the non-tribesmen, classed by the surveyors as 
nativi, naturally had been treated very much as English 
copyholders ; but the status of both classes to the eye of 
the English law courts was vague and undefined, and had 
now to be settled. 

The evidence of the quitrents and their general existence 
down to the present time, except when extinguished by 
purchase, may be taken as presumptive evidence that no 
radical change in the position of the successorj of the free 
tribesmen was made on the substitution of English law for 
the old Welsh customs. But we have seen that even under 
the latter the free tribesman was not individually a free- 
holder, that, in fact, the land ownership and the rights of 
grazing, which formed so large a part of it, were vested in 
the head of the gwely or family. So that even as regards, 
the successors of the tribesmen, the Crown lawyers had no 
easy task to perform. 

But this was not all. There were other difficulties to 
be dealt with besides the legal ones. The successors of 
the old free tribesmen were paying, presumably, the same 
quitrents as of old, and no other services. They held their 



4o8 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

homesteads or tydynau in severalty. Some had been 
extinguished by escheats and forfeitures. But new ones 
had now and again been made out of the waste as famihes 
had increased. The}' had made encroachments and 
extended their inclosures out of the waste, and besides all 
this their most important right as mainly pasture or dairy 
farmers consisted in their ancient user of their undivided 
rights of pasture and co-aration over the districts in which 
they were located. Were they to be reckoned as free- 
holders under English law, or in what other class were 
they to be placed } Again, who was to be reckoned 
the owner, the head of the family, or the individual tribes- 
man .-* It would be hardly possible to deal with each 
tribesman separately, as they were not under tribal 
custom joint tenants, and some of them had only rights 
of maintenance. 

Side by side with these successors of free tribesmen were 
the successors of the non-tribesmen. They also had grown 
by long residence into the possession of family rights. But 
under Welsh custom, as understood by the law)-ers, unless 
en ranchised, they had been for 300 years considered as 
nntivi, and the land the\' occupied had for so long been 
regarded as bond land. They were the nntivi of the old 
chieftains, and now of the Crown, but the\' had been 
adscripti glclnc, and had traditions of long-continued 
possession. Whether distinguished or not from the free 
tribesmen, they also had to be brought under some 
category of English law so that their future rights might 
be defined and known. 

We have taken some pains to ascertain b}' careful 
examination of typical cases what really did happen to the 
two classes of tenants ; and to the material facts of these 
cases attention will now be turned. 

One typical case was brought under our notice by the 
agent of the VVynnstay estate, and is given in full in the 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 409 

evidence.^ It was that of two entire cymwds in Mont- 
gomeryshire (ArwystH and CyfeiHog), which for 700 years, 
with the exception of a short interval, had descended 
together in one ownership, finally becoming a part of the 
VVynnstay estate. 

Now a cymwd under Welsh rule was, as we have seen, 
a wide district embracing generally the chieftain's palace 
and maerdref, now regarded as the demesne manor, and 
the various groups of families of tribesmen and non-tribes- 
men scattered over it and loosely regarded as freeholders 
and nativi. 

The two cymwds thus easily came to be regarded as a 
lordship, or as two distinct lordships, of which the Crown 
farmers or grantees for the time being were the lords. 

But what became of the two classes of tenants under this 
lordship t 

In the year 1574, when the Earl of Leicester was in 
possession under the Crown, a survey of the two cymwds 
was made. The jurors were "the ancient and chiefest 
freeholders," and six of them were chosen, with the consent 
of the rest of the said jurors and of the freeholders of the 
two cymwds, to petition the Earl for a composition. 

The quitrents at the commencement of Queen Elizabeth's 
reign amounted to 120/., but some of them had ceased 
through escheats, &c. 

The composition agreed to seems to have been (i) the 
reduction of the total of quitrents to -^^^ in respect of 
these escheats, &c. ; and (2) an addition in respect of the 
encroachments made on the waste. Thus the old rents 
were in principle left unaltered, though modified to meet 
the changes that had taken place. 

Next, eff"ect was given to the composition by feofi"ments 

' Qu. 76,408. Though not within the area to which the Stat, of Rhutllan 
applied, the case of these two cymwds may be taken as typical of the appli- 
cation of English law to a thoroughly Welsh district. 



410 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

by the Earl of Leicester under licence from the Queen, 
dated 1578, made to four gentlemen, who appear to have 
acted as trustees, for the whole body of tenants, of the 
whole messuages, lands, mills, tenements, &c., now in the 
occupation of the freeholders, reserving to the Earl a certain 
forest, and also all the waste and common lands not 
retained in severalty, and also reserving mines, &c. 

This assumed that the freehold of the waste, &c., was 
under English law in the Earl, and put him in the position 
of the English Lord of the Manor or Lordship. 

But then after this reservation of the freehold in the 
waste he granted to the four trustees " common of pasture 
in all the mountain lands, wastes, and in all common places 
in the commots (except those in demesne) for their sheep, 
animals, cattle, and herds (but not for agistment) as aper- 
taining to the aforesaid messuages, &c., with right to take 
reasonable estovers, house bote, hay bote, plough bote, and 
car bote, in the common woods, &c., not then enclosed or 
appropriated, saving the Earl's right of having as many 
animals, &c., on the said waste, and of enclosing such por- 
tion of the waste as any previous lord might have done." 

The four trustees were to hold the above in free and 
common socage as of the Earl's manor by fealty and suit 
of court, by the rents therein named amounting in all to 
191/. 3^-. ii<^/.,and by a relief after the death of every tenant 
in lieu of all other service. 

The four feoffees were not expressly called trustees, but 
they became under these feoffments seised of all the tene- 
ments and common rights of all the freeholders to the 
intent, in the words of the Crown auditor, " to establish the 
same (freeholders' estates) to such as pretend to have them 
according to the composition made for the renewing of 
decayed rents." 

In other words, this was the perhaps somewhat clumsy, 
but effectual, method by which English lawyers, acting 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 411 

under instructions from the Crown, to secure the descen- 
dants of the old tribesmen in their holdings, effected 
that object. According to the evidence of the present 
agent of the Wynnstay estate, it succeeded so far 
that there are still numerous survivors of these quasi 
freeholders paying the old quitrents as freeholders of the 
manors, and regarded to all intents and purposes as free- 
holders. At the same tiine, in the natural course of 
things, many of the old freehold tenants have from time 
to time sold their holdings to the lord of the manor 
or otherwise, so that by a gradual and natural process of 
purchase the extent of land in the lord's direct ownership 
has from time to time increased, and at the same time 
with it the area let to tenants from year to year. 

So much for the descendants of the free tribesmen. 
Their rights were respected, and they or their successors 
in title still remain freeholders, paying the old and now 
trivial quitrents. 

But the question remains, what became of the so-called 
nativi ? 

The agent assured the Commission that there was no 
evidence or tradition on the estate, to his knowledge, of 
the existence of any class of tenants, copyhold or other, 
representing the ancient non-tribesmen or nativi} Whether 
in the case of these cymwds the class of nativi had become 
in the interval between the conquest of this district of 
Powys and the statute of Henry VIIL, by long residence 
and the acquisition of family rights, merged in the class 
of the somewhat vaguely denominated freeholders, and so 
included in the class whose " pretence " to have freehold 
rights was admitted, or whether, on the other hand, they 
have become tenants from year to year on what, under 
English law, could be regarded probably as the lord's 
demesne lands, does not appear in this particular case. 
' Qu. 76,471-480. 



412 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

If this may be taken as a typical instance of the 
manner in which EngHsh Crown lawyers of Queen Eliza- 
beth's reign dealt with the descendants of the old free 
tribesmen, it may fairly be said that their rights were 
carefully considered, both as regards the lands held by 
them in severalty, and also as regards their tribal rights 
over the wastes. 

But when it is considered what the ultimate result of 
such a settlement would be, even in the case of those 
families whose practically freehold rights were thus care- 
fully respected, it is obvious that the application of the law 
of primogeniture must have confined the settlement with 
freehold rights on the land at least to the heads of families, 
and thus there would arise at once the beginning of a class 
not sharing in the succession to land, and therefore if 
remaining on the land becoming hangers-on to the family 
holding and desirous of becoming tenants from year to year 
or with leases on the lord's demesne land or on the land of 
the larger freeholders. This result was obviously inevitable, 
and may have largely promoted the increased prevalence 
of the normal English year to year tenancy, accompanied, 
as historically it seems generally to have been, with the 
usage of succession from father to son, generation after 
generation. 

But to pass on to another typical instance with special 
reference to the treatment of the non-tribesmen or 
nativi. 

The result of a special search very ably made at the 
request of the Commission in the Public Record Office by 
Mr. Edward Owen, of the India Office, who has given 
much attention to the subject, brought before us interesting 
evidence of what happened to the so-called nativi or bond 
tenants of the manor of Dolwydelen, in the cymwd of 
Nant Conway and county of Carnarvon.^ 

1 Qu. 76,947, ft seq. 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 413 

The rights of these descendants of the old non-tribesmen 
came directly before the Court of Exchequer in 1590. 
They claimed to hold their land as freehold on the ground 
that their ancestors had been enfranchised under a charter 
of Henry VII., along with all other native and bond tenants 
of North Wales. 

This charter still exists on the Patent Roll of 22 Henry VII. 
(part 3, and membrane 22), and the following is a translation 
of the passage above alluded to : — 

" We have also granted on behalf of ourselves and our 
heirs that all our native tenants or inhabitants of our coun- 
ties aforesaid (i.e., Anglesey, Carnarvon, and Merioneth), 
their heirs and successors as well as the natives of the said 
Bishop of Bangor and of any abbots whatsoever (who are) 
bound by some obligation of law shall by the tenour of 
these presents obtain a general emancipation and liberty 
and henceforth have the full benefit and enjoyment of the 
same. And that they shall hold their lands in future by a 
free tenure paying annually both to us and to the fore- 
mentioned Bi-hop of Bangor and the abbots the rents 
which were usually paid in former times, in lieu of every 
exaction, service, and custom which were previously due 
rendered and paid, as our free tenants who reside in these 
our counties aforesaid do or have been in the habit of 
doing." ^ 

It appears from the proceedings in the Court of Exchequer 
that the aforesaid charter was not held to be good in law 
"for some imperfections therein," but nevertheless the posi- 
tion of the nativi was fairly taken into account by the 
Court, and although their claim to a freehold estate was 
not allowed, their continued holding was secured by the 
grant of leases for twenty-one years and " renewal of grant 
after grant." 

1 The full text of this document is printed in Appendix to vol. v. of the 
Minutes of Evidence " (p. 643, ct scq.). 



414 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

The Court, by a decree given in the Easter Term of the 
33rd Eliz. (1590), held that "the freehold and inheritance'' 
of the messuages and lands in question " are in her 
Majesty." But the decree goes on to state, " yet neverthe- 
lesse the saide Compl'" and theire ancesto'" and those under 
whome they do claime haveof longe tyme bene suffered to 
hold and enjoye the said messuage and Landes, w'^'' posses- 
sions by sufferance this Court doth not like to be whollie 
frustrated for that the Compl" and there ancesto'"" have of 
longe tyme bene in possession thereof w""* possession this 
Court doth thinke good to p'serve, and that the Compl'^ an 
other poore Tenants of the sayd Manno' w"'' have likewise 
hold on there Lands by sufferance under the like Cullo' of 
Estate may not be (by) harde dealinge or exacc'on of her 
Ma*"" ffarmors of the sayd Manno' be put from there sayd 
tenancies yt is therefore this day ordered by the Lord 
Treasurer and the Barrons of this Court that the sayd 
CompP^ and all such tenants as clayme the said customarye 
estate shall give over their clayme unto the ffreehold and 
fee simple of the sayd p'misses as ffreeholder by the Comon 
Lawe, yet newthelesse for the p'servacon of her Ma'^ people 
or tenants of the sayd Man'"" yt is ordered that the syyd 
CompP and all other her Ma'" tenants that hold theire 
lands under the p'tence of the sayd custome and there 
children wyvfes or assignes in succession for ever shall and 
may hereafter have the same to them and theire heires or 
assignes by renewinge of graunt after graunt to them to be 
made of the sewall tenants in succession. To hold for 
xxj"^ yeres as at will to her Ma'"" and to her Ma" ffarmo" 
of the sa\'d Manno' or Towneshipp of Dolevvethelane, 
doinge and payinge th useuall rents for the same as hereto- 
fore hath bene usualye payed used and done and for the 
betf assurance of the sayd Tenants so chellengeinge by 
custom, to ever)' tenante and his heires or assignes succes- 
sively yt is ordered that at thend of the sayd terme of 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 415 

xx''^ yeres so made to every tenante either by the expirac'on 
of the terme or by surrender theire shalbe newe graunts in 
succession made for the Hke number of yeres to there heires 
wivfes or assignes as at the tyme of the new taking^ shall 
be founde tenante or as uppon the surrender thereof shalbe 
agreed upon, to hold as aforsayd, payinge such fynes for 
the same as shalbe rated and assessed by theis Court or by 
any other authorised from this Court for that purpose." 
(Exchequer, Decrees and Orders, 33 Eliz., series i, vol. xvii., 
fo. 175b) (76,953)- 

In order to be informed what lands were in question, a 
Commission had previously been issued which reported 
that they had " by the full assents and consentes of both 
the said p'ties ordered the matter in variaunce betweene 
them in mann'r and forme followinge viz. That the said 
Natyve Tennants shall accordinge to your honors said 
Decree enjoye their sew'all tenements for xxitie yeres 
yelding and payinge therfore to her highnes said ffarmors 
foure yeres rent of the old rent for a ffyne, and that terme 
of yeres expired to doe the like for the Residewe of yeres 
remayninge then unexpired and contayned in their leases 
ratably after that sort as they doe for the xxjtie yeres 
. . . We have c'tyfied herin the names of the tennants 
w'th ther sew'all rents de antiquo answered. (Signed) 
Robert Wyn ap Cadd'r, Jo. Heymys . . . 

" M(emoran(d)um) . . . and the foresaid sew'all tennants 
auncestors have bene alwayes reputed and taken as Natyve 
tennants or bondemen of the said Prince's in his said 
Towneship of Dollw'thllan who now disclayme from any 
state of inheritance in their sew'all tenures but doe submytt 
and yeld up their tytles therin to her Ma'tie." (Exchequer, 
Special Commissions : Carnarvon, 32 Eliz., No. 3383.) 
Thus the tenants expressly renounced their pretensions to 
the estates of inheritance which they had originally set 
forth as being in all respects similar to freehold. A final 



4i6 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

decree to the intent already expressed was made in the 
Michaehnas Term, 33 EHz., 1590-91, in these words: — 

" It is this day ordered adjudged and decreed by this 
Court that the sayd CompP' and all other her Ma" tenants 
that hold there lands under p'tence of the sayd custom 
and theire children wivfes or assignes in succession for ever 
shall and may from tyme to tyme and at all tymes here- 
after have hold occupy and enjoye there sayd sevvall lands 
and ten'ts to them and to theire heires wifes or assignes by 
renewinge of graunt after graunt to them to be made of 
there sevvall lands and tennts in succession to holde for 
xxj"'" yeres. As tenants to her Ma"" and to her Ma" 
ft'armo'^ of the said Manno' or Towneshipp of Dolewethelan^ 
according to the first order doinge and payinge the usuall 
rents for the same as heretofore hath bene usually paid used 
and done. And such ffynes as by the sayd Commission are 
certified to be agreed upon, without any other exaction of 
ffynes or rents hereafter to be required by any ffarmo' or 
ffarmo"ofthesaid Manno'or Towneshipp oranyp'te thereof." 

Mr. E. Owen^ also brought before us the case of the 
so-called Manor of Dinorwick, which in the Record of Car- 
narvon is described as entirely composed oi nativi (p. 21). 

A suit in the Court of Exchequer (1594) established the 
right of the native tenants of this manor to renewable leases 
for twent}'-one years or for three lives, and further set forth 
that a lease of any ancient lands could not be granted to 
a third party so long as the ancient tenant in possession, 
his heirs or assigns, desired to have it. But a later decree 
of 1600 held that the claim of the native tenants to rights 
of inheritance or estates in fee simple was invalid, seeing 
that the freehold was in the Queen, and the complainants 
and their ancestors tenants at the will of the Queen, a 
decision perhaps not at variance with the practice of giving 
them leases before sanctioned by the court. The)' could not 
' Ou. 76,9i;9. 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 417 

sustain their claim to the freehold and take renewable leases 
at the same time, and following English precedents, they 
seem to have been considered, like English copyholders in 
some instances, as tenants at the will of the lord, the leases 
being granted as a practical way of giving them a permanent 
tenure though at law tenants at will. 

There is another remarkable instance to hand which runs 
nearly on all fours with the above, and which is given by 
Mr. A. N. Palmer in his " History of Ancient Tenures of 
Land in the Marches of North Wales." ^ 

It is the case of Bromfield and Yale. In this case also 
there was a charter from Henry VII., granted in the 
twentieth year of his reign (1505) just two years earlier 
than the one last mentioned. It practically repealed the 
provision of the statute of 2 Henry IV., which prohibited 
Welshmen from acquiring lands in fee simple or fee tail, 
and at the same time altered the tenure of tenants under the 
King holding in gavelkind making the lands descendible 
to the eldest son according to Enghsh common law and 
freed from several customs or services which by tlieir 
names are distinctly to be recognised as ancient tribal 
services mentioned in the early extents. 

But it does not appear that this charter any more than 
the other charter of Henry VII. was held by the courts as 
having acknowledged or conferred a freehold estate to 
be recognised under English law. The decree makes no 
mention, moreover, of the class of nativi. 

Thus, notwithstanding this charter, the whole question 
had to be gone into afresh in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
and the position of the old tribal tenants of Bromfield and 
Yale was accordingly examined de novo, the inquiry gomg 
back to the time of the conquest, as though no point of law 
had arisen in the meantime. 

In 4 Eliz. it was found that there was a "decay of the 
' See his Appendix, pp. 127 et seq. 

W.P. E E 



4i8 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

sum of 105/. 6s. yearly rent which in ancient times had 
been answered for the said lands." 

By ancient times is evidently meant the time of the 
conquest to which throughout Wales the quitrents went 
back, for the document proceeds to state the explanation 
of the decay in these words — "which decay (as by ancient 
records appeareth) did grow by reason of the great mor- 
tality and plagues which in former times had been in the 
reign of Edward III., and also of the rebellion of Owen 
Glindor and troubles that thereupon ensued ... by reason 
of which mortality and rebellion the country was wasted, the 
tenants and their houses destroyed in so much that the then 
Lords of the soyle were constrayned by their stewards and 
officers to graunt the said lands at a lesser rent than formerly 
was paid for the same to such as could be gotten to take it." 

The reference to the great mortality is clearly to the 
ravages of the Black Death in 1349, of which and the 
many escheats caused by it, the Record of Carnarvon 
contains frequent mention. 

The Crown, as lord of the manor, was not getting the 
whole of the rents mentioned in the extents made after 
the conquest. And the jurors go on to say that in 4 Eliz. 
a commission under the great seal made a survey of the 
lordships of Bromfield and Yale " to revise the said decayed 
rent, and to compound and agree with the tenants of the said 
lordships for a lease of forty years of the lands in their several 
tenures at and under the covenants and conditions in the 
said Commission specified." As the result of the compo- 
sition the tenants surrendered their copies and customary 
estates and agreed to accept leases of forty years instead 
of them. They agreed to pay again the ancient rents of 
their holdings, as well as a fine of two years' rent upon the 
taking out of their leases. The Queen then granted to 
the said tenants " several leases for the term of forty years 
of the lands then in their several tenures." 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 419 

Then follow the words upon which would doubtless be 
determined the vital question, whether these leases were 
renewable once only, or for ever. 

" And in every of the said leases (the Queen) did cove- 
nant and grant for her and her heirs and successors to and 
with the several lessees, their executors and assigns, that 
upon the determination of the said leases, or otherwise 
upon surrender of the same, the said tenants, their execu- 
tors and assigns, might, and should have, another new 
demise or grant of the premises in their several tenures for 
the like term and rent and under the like covenants, as 
by the said first letters-patent were granted, reserved, and 
specified, they, the said lessees, and their executors and 
assigns, paying to the said Queen, her heirs and successors, 
two years' rents of the premises only, for a fine of the said 
new devise, so to be made over and above the rent by the 
said new devise to be reserved." 

The intention of the Crown lawyers of Queen Elizabeth 
to do substantial justice to these Welsh tenants is obvious. 

Now at least, after an interrupted tenure of 200 years 
under somewhat vague and decaying Welsh custom, 
practically abolished by the statute of Henry VIII., the 
tenants on these manors had leases granted to them giving 
them at least an eighty years' uninterrupted tenure, and 
very possibly in intention a perpetual right of renewal. 
During those 200 years, it would seem that the descendants 
of the old free tribesmen had retained their free tenure as 
customary freeholders, and it would appear that the nativi 
also had become recognised as permanent tenants holding 
by copy of court-roll, and considered by English lawyers 
as somewhat analogous to copyholders or customary 
tenants on English manors. This seems to be implied in 
their surrender of their copies and customary estates before 
the grant of the leases. 

The evidence in this case seems to show that the 

E E 2 



420 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

expedient resorted to by the lawyers of Queen Elizabeth 
sometimes in the cases both of the successors of the free 
tribesmen and of the nativi was the surrender of their 
former estates, Avhatever they were, and the substitution of 
leases, renewable on payment of a reasonable fine, as on 
many English manors. 

The Commission had before it, in various parts of Wales, 
evidence of the prevalence of leases for three lives, which 
will be subsequently alluded to, and which very possibly, 
in the absence of other evidence, may be taken as survivals 
of the same system of granting renewable leases in lieu 
of the doubtful and vague claims to rights of permanent 
occupation put forward by the successors of the ancient 
tenants both free and nativi. In some cases the two classes 
had apparently been mixed up together, and the granting 
of renewable leases appears to have been the rough way 
out of the confusion. 

Had these tenants remained tenants of the Crown, they 
would, no doubt, have fared better than in some cases they 
did. But during the Tudor period another cause of diffi- 
culty complicated the problem, and requires some notice, 
though applying only to individual and exceptional cases. 

The result of the general view taken of the position of 
the Welsh tenants under the Crown placed the Crown very 
much in the position of a territorial lord with, no doubt, 
some land in demesne, increased from time to time by 
escheats, yet still very limited in area, and exercising little 
more than a seignorial jurisdiction over the greater part of 
the territory, consisting mainly in the right to receive the 
quitrents from the successors of the tribesmen and non- 
tribesmen in the ancient cymwd or lordship, which quitrents 
seem to have been continued unchanged under the system 
of leases above alluded to. 

The quitrents, as already mentioned, had become divided 
into fractions by the prevalence of gavelkind, and further 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 421 

by a natural process great irregularity had arisen between 
the various tenants from the fact of one or more of the free- 
holders having steadily increased their holdings by buying 
up the lands of others, whilst others had succumbed in the 
battle of life and disappeared altogether. 

At the same time the Crown seems to have commenced, 
in the time of Henry VIII., the practice of granting leases 
of the manorial rights or lordship over portions of the 
Crown possessions in Wales, sometimes to one or more of 
the chief freeholders, and sometimes to Court favourites, 
who thus became farmers of the rights of the Crown, the 
quitrents being reserved to the Crown, but the profits or 
improved value of the Crown demesne lands passing to 
the lessee. 

There are many such Crown leases to farmers mentioned 
in the calendars of State papers, some with express mention 
and some without mention of bonds or covenants for the 
protection of the • tenants. Some of these leases were 
intended apparently by the Crown to be made for the 
benefit of the tenants.^ 

The case of the royal manor of Aberffraw may be taken 
as a typical instance of the confusion arising from this 
practice, and also of the quarrels of rival families of free- 
holders competing with each other for these leases of the 
lordship over their district.^ 

This case illustrates the practice of the Crown giving a 
lease to a farmer of the lordship, he giving a bond that 
upon any controversy between him and the tenants he 
should abide by the order of the Lord Treasurer and 
Chancellor of his Majesty's Exchequer for the time being. 

In one case the lease was transferred to a third party, 
who tried to get out of the obligation by denying that he 
had any notice of the bond. Again, where a second lease 

1 Qu. 76,957- 

^ Mr. E. Owen's evidence (76,962). 



422 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

in reversion of the old one had been ordered to be made to 
another person, " to the use of the tenants," the lease itself 
contained no mention of the tenants, and the decree of the 
court held that this third party had no knowledge that the 
lease was to be to the use of the tenants. Hence arose 
disputes, confusion, and injustice. 

At Aberffraw there were two great parties, one following 
one of the larger freeholders, and the other party following 
another, and by the habitual use of the ancient tribal 
practice of the fosterage of children with tenants exercised 
on both sides, the lesser tenants had become partisans and 
almost retainers and tenants of the two rival freeholders. 
No doubt such a case as this, and the litigation arising from 
it, should put us on our guard against the assumption that 
even after the decree of a Court of Exchequer, everything 
went on smoothly. However careful the courts might be 
to secure the rights of the tenants, it was not every injustice 
or oppression which came into court, and the case of 
Aberffraw shows that sometimes long periods elapsed 
before the protection of the court could be obtained, and 
that sometimes a claim was, in the end, as happened in the 
case of Aberffraw, abandoned by the tenants owing to the 
cost of litigation. 

On the whole the general result of the evidence from 
North Wales seems to be that as regards the successors 
of the free tribesmen their rights were respected b}^ the 
Exchequer Court of Queen Elizabeth, their ancient quit- 
rents being allowed to continue unaltered, so that, speaking 
generally, their successors either still remain freeholders 
paying the quitrents, or have sold their holdings with the 
common rights attached to them. The tendency towards 
large estates seems to have extended to Wales. The often 
repeated process of mortgages and sub.sequent sales seems 
to have often ended as in England, very generally in the 
ultimate addition of holding after holding to the larger 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 423 

estates. The lord of a manor or lordship, having acquired 
by grant from the Crown, or having purchased an estate 
honeycombed by the quasi or customary freeholders, was 
mostly as ready in Wales as in England to buy up any 
holding which might come into the market. 

As regards the 7iativi^ when not merged or confused with 
the free tenants and sharing their treatment, it would seem 
from the typical instances examined, that in most cases 
they passed through the stages of renewable leaseholds 
for lives or terms of years, which may or may not have 
been renewed. 

§ 3. — Evidence from South Wales. 

The instances already examined have been confined to 
North Wales. As already mentioned. South Wales came 
earlier under the influence of Norman law, and therefore 
passed through somewhat different experiences from those 
already described as regards the districts conquered by 
Edward I., and the adjoining districts, once a part of 
Powys. 

In a valuable report,^ supplementary to the evidence 
given by Mr. Edward Owen, will be found a survey taken 
in 1609 of the honour or lordship of Kydweli in Carmar- 
thenshire, at that time one of the possessions of the Duchy 
of Lancaster. It shows that in South Wales the country 
was divided into cymwds, and in many other respects 
retained traces of tribal custom. But South Wales had not 
passed into the hands of the Crown in the same sense as 
had those parts of North Wales which were conquered by 
Edward I. Earlier conquests had long before introduced 
and firmly established the manorial system in South Wales 
and thus the survey above-mentioned, instead of disclosing 
a process by which the ancient tenants were being for the 

' See Appendix to vol. v. oi " Minute's of Evidence," pp. 643 — 677. 



424 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

first time brought within English law by the Crown lawyers 
of Elizabeth, describes them as already ancient tenants 
on long established manors, with ancient and recognised 
customs, representing a singular mixture of Welsh and 
English traditions. The manors were sometimes divided 
into two divisions, in one of which English tenants and 
English customs were said to prevail, whilst in the other 
Welsh tenants and Welsh customs were prevalent. The 
differences between them were, however, ver}' minute. Eor 
instance, the English followed English manorial customs 
and paid the " best beast " as their heriot, whilst the Welsh 
still adhered to the Ebediw of the Welsh Codes of los. 
Till the statute of Henry VIII. the tenants are said to have 
held their lands in " gavelkynd," some being " bond" and 
some " free men," transferring their holdings by the rod. 
'1 he survey goes on to say, " They are now for the most 
part freeholders," some few copyholders remaining only in 
one manor. These copyholders are described as " taking 
for two lives only in possession and no reversion," and on 
the death of the second life the copyhold became void 
except that the next heir might " have the refusal at I2d. 
less than any other will give." The fines were " uncertain, 
such as the tenant could agree or compound for with the 
lord or his steward." Hence we may assume from this 
survey that, broadly speaking, a manorial system had long 
been established in this part of Carmarthenshire with its 
customarj' freeholders and copyholders and immemorial 
customs, resting some on Welsh and some on English 
traditions, varied only in Tudor times by the abolition 
under Henry VIII. of the division among heirs. 

Further light may be derived from what took place at 
a similar period in Pembrokeshire. 

It is well known that the boundary line between the 
English and Welsh districts of Pembrokeshire goes back- 
to a very early date. 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 425 

George Owen (who lived 1552 — 1613) wrote his "Descrip- 
tion of Pembrokeshire " in 1603. His knowledge extended, 
therefore, over the critical period during which the rights of 
Welsh tenants of North Wales were considered by the law 
courts of Queen Elizabeth. 

He describes the Welsh peasantry as still clinging to 
their old open field system of agriculture, with its holdings 
of scattered strips, and as still exercising the common right 
of pasture over them after removal of the crops. ^ 

Now we know from the extent of the estates of St. 
David's made in 8 Edw. HI. that the tribal system of 
occupation in gwelys was prevalent in the Welsh districts 
of Pembrokeshire and the estates of the see in Cardigan- 
shire, Carmarthenshire, and Glamorganshire. And from the 
large number of quitrents of " customary freeholders" still 
collected by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners from these 
and other ecclesiastical estates,^ it may be judged that 
in these districts, as in North Wales, the free tribesmen 
had come to be regarded by English law as " customary 
freeholders." 

As regards the non-tribesmen or nativi it would seem 
from Owen's description that up to about the year 1500 
they had been regarded at law as " tenants at will accoi'-dmg 
to the custom of the country," but that owing to the absence 
of any pressure of population and the dearth of tenants 
the tenancy continued without alteration of rent and with 
only nominal fines for renewal as a practically permanent 
tenancy. 

He says :^ "And first I will begin with the tenants of 
the country whereof I speak in general, including therein 
the greatest number which in times past were tenants 
at will, and few sought leases, for most commonly the 

' Owen's "Pembrokeshire," p. 6i. 

- Qu. 76,329—76,342. 

^ Owen's " Pembrokeshire," p. 190 



426 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

landlord rather made suit for a good tenant to take his land 
than the tenant to the landlord, such was the scarcity of 
good tenants in those days there to be found that glad was 
the lord to hit upon a good thrifty and husbandly tenant." 
He then contrasts this state of things with what had 
happened in his own time, during which there had been 
a rise in prices and a competition for farms, and during 
which, in consequence, high fines had become general for 
renewal of leases, whilst there was no security of tenure 
without them. 

" As for fines to be paid it was not a thing known among 
them a hundred years past, saving only an earnest penny 
at the bargain making, which the plain men called * a gods 
penny,' and which in these 60 years the poor tenants were 
wont to say the paying of fines was an ill custom raised 
among them of late." 

And he gives an example of how insignificant were the 
fines and how little they were thought of in the old days. 

"The letting of lands was of so small commodity that 
I know lands in coparceny between heirs, when the next 
to the land hath had the setting and letting thereof these 
60 years and more, the other contenting himself with his 
part of the rent not esteeming what might be made by 
fines thereof." 

He continues to complain that during the last forty 
years, i.e., from 1560 — 1600, all this was changed. 

" For now the poor tenant that lived well in that golden 
world is taught to sing unto his lord a new song, and the 
landlords have learnt the text of the damned disciple, 
' Quid vultis iiiihi dare, et ego ilium vobis tradaui' and now 
the world is so altered with the poor tenant that he standeth 
so in bodily fear of his greedy neighbour that two or three 
years ere his lease end he must bow to his lord for a new 
lease, and must pinch it out many years before to heap 
money together, so that in this age it is as easy for a poor 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 427 

tenant to marry two of his daughters to his neighbour's 
sons as to match himself to a good farm from his landlord." 
This is precisely the same complaint as that made in 
England at the same period. Harrison, in his " Description 
of England " (a.U. i 577), says : — 

" Although peradventure four pounds of old rent be 
improved to forty or fifty pounds, yet will the farmer think 
his gains very small toward the middest of his term if he 
have not six or seven years' rent lying by him therewith to 
purchase a new lease ... for what stock of money soever 
he gathereth in all his years it is often seen that the land- 
lord will take such order with him for the same when he 
reneweth his lease (which is commonly eight or ten years 
before it be expired, sithe it is now growen almost to a 
custom that, if he come not to his lord so long before, 
another shall step in for a reversion and so defeat him out- 
right) that it shall never trouble him more than the hair of 
his beard when the barber hath washed and shaven it from 
his chin" (fol. 85). 

Recurring to the position of the Pembrokeshire tenants, 
the successors of the non-tribesmen, though in some sense 
recognised as like English copyholders, were evidently not 
protected by custom from the payment of increasing fines 
on renewal, resulting from the keen competition for farms. 
Their case had been dealt with by English lawyers 
centuries earlier than that of the nativi of North Wales. 

They seem to have been regarded from early times as 
only quasi copyholders, as holding in law only from year to 
year, and yet they were subject to heriots at their death. 
The following passage is useful as showing how a kind of 
middle stage had grown up in these Welsh manors of South 
Wales between the ordinary customary tenant and the 
tenant from year to year. 

" This use of tenants at will was so common that there 
were man)^ other customs grounded upon the same, for they 



428 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

were not tenants at will at the common law to be put out 
at the lord's will at any time of the year, but they were 
tenants at will according to the custom of the countr)-, and 
were not removable without two lawful warnings to be given 
at usual feasts, that is the one on our lady's eve in March, 
the other at May eve, and then was the old tenant at Mid- 
summer to remove out of the hall house and to lease it to 
the new tenant and the pastures to be common between 
them till Michaelmas, and then the old tenant to depart 
c/a// pa)iiiii and to leave it vvholl)' to the new comer, divers 
orders then are duly observed as yet amongst these tenants 
which for brevity's sake I here pass over. 

" This kind of tenants by the custom of the country were 
to pay heriots at their death, viz., their best beast, and also 
were chargeable to the repair of their houses, hedges, &c., 
and therein is observed an order worth the noting . . . 
viz., that if the tenant suffer his houses, hedges, or building'.s 
to grow ruinous the landlord used to swear a jury of six of 
his tenants of the like tenure and custom (whose turns may 
be next to taste of the same sauce) to view the decay who 
must and ought accordingly upon their oaths present the 
same indifferently between the lord and his tenant, which 
done the landlord by his bailiff or servant useth to arrest so 
much of the tenants goods upon the land as is found of 
decay and . . . 

" This custom of repair held only for thatched houses, 
but for slate houses the landlords were to repair them 
except it were by special covenant . . ." 

Thus, so far as it goes, the Pembrokeshire evidence so 
far as it can be regarded as typical of the early conquered 
districts of South Wales seems to show that, whilst the free 
tribesmen became "customary freeholders" under English 
law, the non-tribesmen had become regarded at law very 
early as "tenants at will under the customs of their respec- 
tive manors " like English copyholders. But at the same 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 429 

time it would seeni that the customs of the manors in their 
case, as in the case of many English manors, afforded no 
adequate protection as regards the amount of the fines. 
Owing to this lack of adequate custom controlling the 
amount of fines, and to the general rise in fines following 
the general rise in prices, they became subject to the com- 
petition of outsiders on the renewal of their tenures, and 
were obliged to pay what they considered exorbitant fines 
to obtain renewals. Thus, in their case, owing to the at 
one time harmless prevalence of the system of fines, they 
were prevented from reaping the advantage enjoyed by the 
customary freeholders whose quitrents remained the same 
through all vicissitudes notwithstanding the rise in prices. 

§ 4. — T/ie Growth of Tenancy from Year to Year 
in Wales generally. 

Regarding the foregoing evidence drawn from the typical 
cases above mentioned as fairly representing the general 
experience of Welsh tenants under the application to their 
case of English law, it can hardly be represented as 
involving intentional injustice or hardship. 

The compositions and settlements of the Crown lawyers 
of Queen Elizabeth were apparently in intention at least, on 
the whole, fair attempts to deal with the difficult circum- 
stances of the ancient Welsh tribal tenures. The substi- 
tution of renewable leases for other and vague tenures was 
not confined to Wales, and the question when and how and 
why they ceased to be renewed is as much an Enghsh 
question as a Welsh one. Renewable leases disappeared 
in England as they did in Wales. Whether there was some 
legal flaw in the creation of leases with perpetual right of 
renewal, or whether the right of renewal once exercised 
was held to be exhausted, or whether the renewals ceased 
to be sought for by the tenants, or how much economic 
causes had to do with it, it is not easy to ascertain. To 



430 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

the more modern aspects of this question we shall have to 
recur hereafter. One thing, however, seems to be clear. 
The fines on renewal in the absence of express limit by 
the custom of the particular manor were it would seem held 
by the courts to be uncertain, and owing to the rise in prices 
and in the value of land the uncertainty might easily lead 
to prohibitive increase in their amount. Whatever hard- 
ship resulted from this, English and Welsh tenants shared 
it together. 

John Norden, a land surveyor, whose surveys of parts of 
Wales show how great was his experience of Welsh as well 
as English tenures, in his " Surveyor's Dialogue," written in 
1607, thus described the position of things at that date as 
regards fines on renewal of copyhold tenures. 

Farmer : " You have not satisfied me . . . touching the 
fiines of customary tenants of inheritance . . ." 

Surveyor: "This kind of tenant hath seldom any com- 
petitor to emulate his offer, because the tenant leaveth 
commonly one either in right of inheritance, or by surrender 
to succeed him, and he by custom of the manor is to be 
accepted tenant ahvays pj'ovided he must agree with the 
lord, if the custom of the manor hold not the fine certain, 
as in few it dothy ^ 

If in but few English manors fines were fixed and made 
certain by custom, it may well be that uncertainty was the 
rule at any rate in the newly-constituted manors of Wales, 
inasmuch as English law did not admit of the recognition 
of customs unless clearly going back beyond legal memory. 
It was not till after a series of later decisions that the 
amount of a "reasonable fine" was fixed by the courts to 
be two years improved value of the holding.- 

Under the actual circumst.inces of the case, the year to 

' Ashley's " Econoniic History,"!. 297. 

- See " Scrivenon Copyhold," ch. vii. , on " the lord's fine." And see also 
Ashley's "Economic History," book ii., c. 4. 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 431 

year tenancy may have afforded a more comfortable prospect 
of permanence than the renewable lease. The year to year 
tenancy at a fair rent of the improved value of the land 
may have afforded a better prospect to the tenant than that 
of a smaller rent with the recurring uncertain fine. The 
recurring period of uncertainty and disturbance was hardly 
likely to be popular with tenants whose traditions were of 
permanent tenancy. And there can be little doubt that 
both in England and in Wales the year to year tenancy 
in most cases was in practice, as well as in intention, the 
more permanent tenure. At the same time, to fresh tenants 
the year to year tenancy would, for the same reasons, be 
the more popular one. 

That the_ class of fresh tenants was in Wales a large and 
increasing one must almost necessarily have resulted from 
the two causes already mentioned. First, the substitution 
of primogeniture for gavelkind inheritance, by stopping 
division of holdings would add to the number of applicants 
for new ones ; and secondly, the large proportion of the 
land not as yet occupied in severalty, but subject only 
to common rights of pasture, in most districts would 
make easy the creation of new holdings out of the waste 
by gradual increase of inclosures, and without special 
legislation. 

The homesteads and inclosures of the original tribesmen 
and non-tribesmen and their successors, originally occupied 
in severalty, as we have seen, but a very small part of the 
area of the district over which they had rights of pasture. 
No doubt the multiplication of homesteads during the 
two centuries after the conquest, before gavelkind was 
abolished, had involved encroachments on the waste, and 
set in motion the general practice of encroachment and 
inclosure, legally or illegally accomplished, which has a 
survival in the squatters of more modern times. This 
gradual increase of inclosures in Wales, resulting in the 



432 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

present prevalence of scattered farms, held in severalty, 
involved questions very different from those which the 
common form of the English Inclosure Act for an open 
field township was intended to solve. 

The Welsh inclosures were, probably, very f^radually and 
silently made as the pressure of population required new 
holdings to be provided out of the waste, and finally, when 
the aid of Inclosure Acts was sought, it would be mostly 
to divide up large tracts of mountain and other land which 
remained in common pasture. 

The question of commons and inclosures is dealt with 
separately in the Report, but the mention of their position 
in the history of Welsh land tenure is not irrelevant in this 
connection as explaining, to some extent, the facility with 
which the system of separate farms, and year to year 
tenancy, was extended without legislative action. 

§ 5- — Suminary of tlie Historical Result. 

To sum up the historical result, it will be seen, in con- 
clusion, that many causes have combined in producing and 
afterwards perpetuating what is the marked and peculiar 
feature of rural economy in Wales, viz., the prevalence of 
a large number of small separate farms of what may be 
described as the peasant and family type. So that, on the 
one hand, the year to year tenancy in Wales has not 
become generally associated as in England with the system 
of large farms of the more commercial type, nor, on the 
other hand, has it been associated as in Ireland and the 
crofter districts of Scotland with that excessive subdivision 
and subletting which leads to the congestion of a rural 
population upon holdings too small to maintain the 
occupiers. Had the .system of renewable leases continued, 
it might easily have led to the Irish system of throwing 
upon the tenant the obligation to make and maintain the 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 433 

buildings, and this in its turn might have introduced into 
Wales the complications of divided ownership. 

The natural inherited instinct to live by the land, and 
the consequent competition for farms in Wales as in 
Ireland, furnished all the necessary factors for producing 
these results. But somehow or other the transition from 
tribal to modern forms of tenure in Wales has been accom- 
plished without them. 

No doubt the mountainous character of the country, the 
large areas of land under common grazing, and the pastoral 
character of the farming have had something to do with it, 
but much also must be attributed to the hereditary instincts 
and traditions of both landlords and tenants, and to the 
customary relations which grew out of them. 

The relation of landlord and tenant in Wales gradually 
passing through the stage of leases for years or lives into a 
year to year tenancy has made possible the continuance of 
a useful control on the part of the landlord combined with 
a large measure of permanence in the tenure of the tenants ; 
but it can hardly be doubted that the traditional element 
has had a great deal to do with the customary relations 
which have existed for generations on many estates. 

The more modern aspects of some of the questions 
involved in the historical survey — the growth of large 
estates and the gradual dying-out of the system of renew- 
able leases — receive more detailed attention in the Report 
and below, but it is important before leaving this part of 
the subject that the full extent of some of the before- 
mentioned peculiar results of Welsh economic history 
should be adequately realised as far as possible in actual 
figures. 

The Census of 1861 enables us to trace some of these 
results with remarkable clearness. 

First, the comparative smallness of the farms is shown 
very clearly by the statement of the number of labourers 

W.P. F F 



434 



THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 



employed upon them. The annexed map No. i shows the 
number of labourers to each farmer and grazier in the 
various counties of England and Wales. It will be seen 
that if a line be drawn from the Wash to the Axe, there 
would be, roughly, about ten labourers to each farm in the 
Eastern Counties. If a line were drawn from the Humber 
to the Dee and from thence to the Severn, the average for 
middle England would be about five to each farm ; whilst 
in Wales the number would not exceed one and a half to 
two labourers per farm. 

The other counties of England nearly approaching 
Wales in this respect are Cornwall, Lancashire, Westmore- 
land, Cumberland, Durham, the West and North Riding 
of Yorkshire, and Derbyshire, all of which resemble Wales 
more or less in being hilly and chiefly pasture. 

Again, the number of farmers and graziers according to 
the Census of i86i was as follows : — 





North Wales. 


South Wales. 


England. 


Males .... 
Females 


14,660 
2,202 


18,102 
4,862 


194.193 
15,714 


Total 


16,862 


22,964 209,907 



It will be seen that the proportion of women for the 
time being returned as occupying farms is, roughly, as one 
to five in Wales, while it is only as one to twelve in 
England. This is more than a slight indication that the 
continuance of farms on the death of the occupier as family 
holdings was more general in Wales than in other parts of 
the kingdom. But the family or household character of 
the Welsh farms is still more clearly shown by a com- 
parison which the same census enables us to make between 







F F 2 



436 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

the indoor and outdoor character of the labour employed 
upon them. 

Map No. 2 gives the proportion of outdoor labourers 
to indoor labourers according to the same census. The 
figures show that whilst in England the great mass of the 
farm labourers are outdoor labourers, it is quite the reverse 
in Wales and the analogous counties of Cumberland and 
Westmoreland. Whilst about one-half of the agricultural 
labourers in Wales, Cumberland, and Westmoreland are 
indoor labourers, the proportion becomes less and less 
towards the east, till in Esse.v the proportion is only one 
to eighty. 

Adding the number of indoor labourers in Wales to the 
number of farmers and their sons, &c., the total of house- 
hold indoor labour as compared with the outdoor was 
as follows : — 





Wales. 


England 


Household and indoor 

Outdoor 


82,291 

35,775 


428,166 
902,085 



So that whilst in England not quite one-third of the labour 
was household and indoor labour, and more than two- 
thirds outdoor, in Wales less than one-third was outdoor, 
and more than two-thirds household and indoor. 

These figures from the Census of 1861 supplement the 
foregoing survey of historical causes by giving a practical 
view of their results. They throw inferentially a strong 
light upon the peculiar economic process by which the 
Welsh peasantry have passed from the primitive patri- 
archal conditions of the tribal system into their modern 
conditions under year to year tenancy. 

In conclusion, we have not attempted to minimise the 
extent to which the still lingering instincts and traditions 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 437 

of Welsh tenants may have their roots in the past, and yet 
be important factors in modern economic problems. 

Their existence is one of the present facts which have to 
be acknowledged. But beyond this we have found no 
reasonable ground for importing into modern economic 
problems historical considerations which, however powerful 
at the time when the lawyers of Queen Elizabeth had to 
attempt to bring Welsh tribal custom within some category 
of English law, have been long superseded or rendered 
inoperative by the economic changes of the past three 
centuries. 

The present year to year tenants of Wales cannot claim 
to be the direct successors of the ancient Welsh free tribes- 
men. The successors in title of these are still paying their 
ancient and now trifling quitrents. That more of them 
have not survived is owing to natural causes, and, perhaps 
more than all, to their having enjoyed for centuries, like 
English copyholders, the right of selling their holdings in 
the open market. On the other hand, if some of the 
present year to year tenants are the successors of the 
ancient non-tribesmen or nativi, then the most probable 
general conclusion seems to be that their ancestors have 
passed through various vicissitudes, out of which, through 
stages of leases for lives or years (which for some reason 
were not renewed), they have passed into the position of 
year to year tenants.i 

§ 6. — Formation and Continuity oj Estates. 

It appears clearly enough from what we have said that 

the bulk of land in Wales is, for agricultural purposes, 

now divided into areas possessed by estate owners and 

cultivated by tenants from year to year, or by lessees for 

terms of years. From the legal point of view there is no 

^ Mr. Seebohm's contribution ends, here; but as Commissioner he subscribed 
the remainder of the chapter. 



438 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

difference between the tenant in fee simple of lOO acres 
and the tenant in fee simple of 20,000 acres. But from the 
economist's point of view there is an immense distinction. 
An " estate " is an economic unit, an industrial, organic 
entity, having a life of its own, and influencing in many 
ways the progress or retrogression of a county or district. 
The owners of these estates collectively form an aristocratic 
class in the community, exercise a general superintendence 
over the management of their estates, and depend upon the 
rent and profits of their land for the maintenance of them- 
.selves and their families. To the actual cultivators of the 
soil, and, in many respects, to the people at large, they 
stand in a relation similar to that in which the lords or 
barons of medijeval times stood to the peasants of 
those days. If 'we go back some six hundred years to 
the time before the Edwardian conquest of North Wales, 
we find that the class in the community who occupied the 
position most analogous to that of the modern estate owner 
was the order formed by the lords marchers and the Welsh 
princes and lords. We find the land cultivated (so far as 
it was utilised at all) by the free and servile tenants of these 
lords, holding on customary terms. With the way in which 
these customary tenants have become tenants from year to 
year we have just dealt. 

The further question how the feudal lord marcher and 
the Welsh argkvy^ have been replaced by estate owners 
is one which may reasonably be asked, but which neither 
our research nor the evidence enables us to dispose of fully 
or confidently. The answer to it depends upon historical 
data which, though they are even now extensive, are not 
complete, and accordingl)' we cannot pretend to give a final 
solution to the problem. The question ma}' be expressed 
more definitel}' thus : How have these Welsh estates been 
formed .'' Some few observations may be made with con- 
fidence. First of all, the process of formation has been 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 439 

very gradual, and there has never been any real break in 
its continuity. The points at which the continuity of the 
process became most nearly broken are the Edwardian 
conquest itself, the accession of Henry Tudor, the dissolu- 
tion of the monasteries, and the civil wars of the seventeenth 
century. 

The system of settlement and re-settlement from time 
to time with the view to keeping the estate together, and 
to vest it continually in a tenant for life in possession, 
and tenants in tail in remainder, subject to charges in 
favour of younger children, was introduced into Wales as in 
England, not of course universally, for in most cases the 
estates were small, and in some cases the entail having been 
broken, no re-settlement was made. 

In the next place, considerable distinction in the rate at 
which the change from the old order to the new went on 
must be made between the principality proper and the 
marches ; for in the former the custom of dividing an 
inheritance was continued down to the reign of Henry VHI., 
while the laws and customs in vogue in the courts of the lords 
marchers were very rapidly assimilated in essential points 
to those of the English courts, both royal and manorial. 

In the third place, the process was not fundamentally 
dissimilar from that which went on in the English counties ; 
but even if it did not proceed (as is probably the case) more 
slowly than in those districts, yet it began later, and the 
modern type of estate, on a considerable scale, appears 
later in the Welsh counties than in most parts of England. 

Now, in the century after the Edwardian conquest, the 
actual state of things in Wales and the marches was 
this : at the top of the social and economic structure thefe 
were the Norman or Norman-Welsh lord marcher and the 
heads of the Welsh noble families (ucke/wjr of the royal 
or princely caste) who had survived the conquest without 
attainder. These by their bailiffs and officers, servants and 



440 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

tenants, cultivated their demesne lands, but the greater por- 
tion of the then cultivated area was probably in the actual 
occupation of free tenants (whether ucJielwyr, boneUigion, 
or atitudion) and of tenants practically corresponding to 
the villein class in England — bond or native tenants. 

The total effect, from an economic point of view, of the 
whole process we are trying to describe may be (making 
due allowance for the distinction between the principality 
and the marches) stated to be the survival of the free 
tenant or tribesman — the occupying uchelwr, bonectig, or 
atttud of free or gentlemanly degree {i.e., entitled to bear 
arms in the host) — and the decay of the princely or baronial 
class, as such, on the one hand, and of the servile or non- 
tribal occupier on the other. 



§ 7. — Causes of tJie Change. 

The leading causes or forces which have produced this 
great change, and which have resulted in the creation of 
the modern estate, may, in more abstract terms, be thus 
expressed : — 

First, the seigniorial rights, owing to the change in the 
value of money, became less and less valuable (measured 
in current coin).^ 

Secondly, the price of land held on the least burdensome 
tenure {i.e., freehold land held of the Crown or a mesne lord 
upon payment of chief or quit rents), and therefore most 
disposable by sale or mortgage, went up continuously and 
very greatly. Before the development of manufactures 
and commerce on the modern system, land was not simply 
the most desirable and safe, but in the remoter and less- 
advanced districts the only readily available investment for 
any capital which a freeholder might possess, beyond what 

See the case of Maelor Saesneg in Uie Report, par. 190 ; and tlie Mon. 
Mrs. ]jiilkeley-Ovven"s evidence, Minutes, iv. p. 114, (]ii. 57, 149, el scq. 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 441 

could be prudently used in actual farming. Accordingly, 
the saving and provident freeholder employed such money 
as he had to invest in the purchase of other parcels of free- 
hold land. The mortgage of land, too, by the unsuccessful 
or improvident freeholder, offered another mode of invest- 
ment, and in many cases the transaction ultimately led to 
foreclosure or sale, and the consequent disappearance of the 
mortgagee and his family from the list of owners. As the 
feudal aristocracy of the marches decayed, and it became 
possible to purchase seigniorial rights and to enforce them 
in courts of law without recourse to arms, there was clearly 
every inducement to the freehold tenant who was accumu- 
lating land to acquire those rights, especially such as were 
exerciseable over his own or adjoining land. The astute 
and vigilant exaction and use of these rights by such a 
freeholder, living on his own estate, also tended to produce 
an enlargement of his property. So also the obtaining of 
leases or grants of Crown lands gave opportunities of which 
the progressing freeholder readily availed himself. 

Thirdly, the Act of Union between England and Wales 
made the structure of Welsh society and political organisa- 
tion similar to that of England, and the calling of members 
to Parliament from the Welsh counties and boroughs 
greatly added to the power and influence of the larger free- 
holders. Those freeholders who possessed areas of land so 
large that they had ceased to be merely farmers, but 
subsisted mainly on rents paid by the actual cultivators 
had by this time, owing to the operation of many causes 
(e.o-., traditional sentiment), come to be a distinct class, 
sharing amongst themselves the Crown offices incident to 
the management of the principality, and the judicial and 
other posts connected with local government, and excluding 
all others (outside the boroughs, which were small and 
unimportant in Wales) from any share in county affairs. 
They already formed a ^2/«.yz'-aristocratic class, rapidly 



442 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

taking the same place in the social and political structure 
that had been previoush' occupied by the feudal baronial 
families, who had almost disappeared, but with whom this 
new class had many points of connection. Intermarriages 
among members of this comparatively limited class and 
succession by settlement and devise naturally became 
potent factors in the process of aggregation. 

Fourthly, the assimilation of the Welsh and English law, 
completed by the legislation of Henry VIII., powerfully 
tended to enlarge the consequence and power of this class, 
and to produce ^n aggregation of land in a few hands. 
This involved the abolition of the Welsh system of dividing 
the inheritance, and the introduction of the law of primo- 
geniture. The statute 12 Charles II. c. 24, abolished tenures 
by knight service and by socage in capite of the king, and 
converted all tenures into free and common socage. This 
Act in Wales, as in England, materially benefited the then 
existing estate owners, while the introduction of the modern 
method of settlement and re-settlement in tail into Wales 
was an additional means of preserving the estates intact in 
the possession of the same family. 

§ 8. — The Effect of tJie Chicj Historical Events. 

Such, stated in general or abstract terms, appear to us 
to be the main causes of the displacement of the feudal 
aristocracy, the substitution of the Welsh country gentle- 
man or squire, and of the rise of the modern system of 
estates. But a succession of concrete historical events, 
which cannot be logically classified, facilitated the process 
on most important points in the development. As we have 
seen, the Norman of South and Central Wales introduced 
into those parts of the country the Norman-English theories 
and systems. The Edwardian conquest of North Wales 
partially did the same for the principality proper. We 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 443 

have examined above the method of settlement adopted by 
Edward I. and his successors, and the later management of 
affairs by the advisers of the Tudor monarchs. Generally 
speaking, we may say the effect was to dissolve tribal 
notions of real property law, and to replace them by the 
more fully developed theories of the English lawyers. 
That the change involved (whatever may have been the 
intentions of the English Crown) grave injustice, there 
can be no doubt. In theory the rights of the Welsh 
freeholders, or free tribesmen, were admitted and pre- 
served, but in practice the officers of the Crown and 
the lords who surrounded or acquired a footing in the 
principality were guilty of oppressing the Welshmen 
of every degree. Speaking of the pre-Tudor times. 
Sir John Wynne (a competent and trustworthy writer) 
says : " The exactions were in those dayes soe mani- 
fold that not onely the bondmen ranne away from the 
king's land, but alsoe freeholders from their owne land."^ 
From what Sir John says, it seems that the process or writ 
called cessavit per bienniiini gave a ready weapon to the 
unscrupulous Crown official. This writ appears to have 
lain against a tenant in freehold under the king or another 
lord who ceased for two years to do his service. Among 
instances of oppression that he recounts he mentions that 
Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, to whom the king granted 
the " Denbigh land," " minding to make a princely seat 
of the castle of Denbigh, per force compassed the children 
of the said David ap Grufifith to exchange their possessions 
about Denbigh Castle (which were great) with him for other 
lands of less value in the said lordship in the furthest part 
from him."" The probable result of this state of things 
was a diminution of the number of the freehold tenants 
during the time between the Conquest and the time of 

> "History of the Gwydir Family," p. 83 (edition of 1878). 
2 Ibid., p. 25. 



444 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

Elizabeth. But while this fact lessened the number of the 
freeholders, it should be noticed it increased the strength 
and opportunities of those of the class who were able to 
survive. 

Another event which was of far-reaching economic effect 
in Wales, as in England, was the Black Death, which, at 
intervals, desolated the kingdom in the fourteenth century. 
The Record of Carnarvon and other documents contain 
entries which prove that this pestilence lowered the popula- 
tion, including, of course, the free as well as bond or native 
tenants. 

The series of rebellions that took place after the 
Edwardian settlement and the Wars of the Roses were 
also historical events which led to the decay of the wealth 
and power of, and the disappearance of, many of the 
individual families forming the feudal baronage, as well 
as of the survivors of the Welsh princely houses. The 
decline of the one class of proprietors naturally, in the long 
run, brought about the rise of the other class. It is often 
said that the ruin of the early feudal aristocracy was 
brought about by the conflicts between Lancastrians and 
Yorkists. This seems an error ; the lessening of their 
power commenced before,^ at any rate if one speaks of the 
whole kingdom ; but ever}'thing points to their retaining 
their power and influence to a later time in Wales and the 
marches than elsewhere. For the two hundred and fifty 
years that passed after the conquest by Edward I. this 
western part of the Island was in a practically continuous 
state of disorder. The peace of the king and of his feudal 
tenants was ill kept. Life and property were ever)'where 
insecure. Private wars wcvc constantl}' breaking out between 
the lords marchers themselves and between the lords 
marchers and the descendants or reputed descendants of 
the Welsh princely or lordly families. The leaders of the 

' Green's " History of the Eni^libh People," vol. ii., p. 14. 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 445 

Welsh, of course, too, quarrelled among themselves, and 
only occasionally took anything like real concerted action 
against the vexatious and oppressive conduct of the 
Norman-English settlers. The result of a period of con- 
fusion like this was naturally adverse to the persons who 
played the greatest part in the affairs of their times. The 
leaders habitually fought with their own hands, and there- 
fore ran the risks of the battlefield in their own persons. 
Defeat oftentimes meant death or attainder, and sometimes 
both. All this is true of England as well, but this state of 
things lasted longer in the principality and the marches. 
It is easy, however, by wrongly interpreting the general 
phrases of chroniclers and historians, to form an exaggerated 
picture of the ills of this period. It should be noted that 
under the Welsh tribal system it was only the free tribes- 
man {uchelwr or bonedig) who formed part of the host, 
and the bond tenant was left at home or attended the army 
in menial capacity. Nor was the matter for a long time 
very different after the Conquest. The right to bear arms 
belonged only to those of gentle blood or to those persons 
who were received as retainers of the lord marcher or Welsh 
prince or lord. A war did not mean that all the cultivators 
of the soil actually left it ; when any of them did so they 
were away only a short time.^ The operation of such aori- 
culture as existed went on as usual. There was no such 
dislocation of rural life as modern war brings about in 
occupied districts. While, then, the consequence of the 
condition of things in Wales in the fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries was disastrous to the aristocratic families, it was 
not fatal to the progress and permanence of the freeholders 
as a class, though no doubt their growth in prosperity was 
retarded and their comfort and happiness diminished. 

Another historical event which had a marked influence 

' This remark must be qualified by stating that on many occasions there was 
recruiting for the king's army in the marches and in Wales. 



446 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

in improving the position of the descendants of the Welsh 
freehold tenants, who had by this time attained a consider- 
able position and had acquired in many instances the 
position of the squire or country gentleman, was the fact 
that the Act of Union (bi^sides its assimilation of the 
private law of Wales to that of England) gave Wales the 
right of representation in the House of Commons. Of 
course great lords or barons who owned lands or lordships 
in Wales or the marches had been summoned to the House 
of Lords, but one gentleman only of Welsh name and 
descent had, before the time of Henry VH., been advanced 
to the peerage in the modern sense — Sir William ap Thomas, 
created Earl of Pembroke by Edward IV., from whom the 
important family of the Herberts trace their descent, and 
who was in his time the " only and entire commander of 
Wales." ^ No Welshman in the true sense was summoned 
by Henry VH., upon his accession, to Parliament. Of the 
twenty-nine peers summoned by him to his first Parliament 
not a single one was Welsh by name and descent, or had 
his principal property and lordships in the principalit}' or 
those parts of the marches that ultimately were appor- 
tioned to Welsh counties. No doubt some of these twenty- 
nine peers had propert}' in the marches and possibly in 
Wales proper, but not one can be fairly described as a 
W^elshman. Members had been returned to the House of 
Commons at an early date from Anglesey, Merionethshire, 
and Carnarvonshire,- but from the time of Edward H. to 
the Stat. 27 Henry VHI. c. 26, there was an intermission. 
From the time of Henry VHI.,'^ however, Welsh members 
were sent up to Westminster regularh^, and this fact had a 

' Owen's "Pembrokeshire," ed. Henry Owen, iS92(Lond., 8vo, Cymmo- 
dorion Record Series), p. 28. 

- Williams's "Parliamentary History of Wales" (Lond., 1895, 4to, p. i. : 
Introduction), 

3 Certainly from 1541. As to the Parliaments of 1536 and 1539 qiicrre. 
See Williams, p. i. : Introduction. 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 447 

rapid and far-reaching efifect upon the fortunes of the Welsh 
gentry. From the condition of the times and the nature of 
the franchise it was members of land-owning famiHes who 
were elected for many generations. The effect upon these 
families of their joining in the general political life of the 
whole kingdom was to enlarge their views, to increase their 
importance, to bring them into contact, on a favourable 
basis, with the members of their order in the Hnglish 
counties, to lead to intermarriages between Welsh and 
English families, and to give, to the able and ambitious, 
opportunities of worldly advancement on a considerable 
scale in many directions, especially in civil affairs, which 
had theretofore been denied to the Welsh gentleman. The 
more wealthy and influential among those men were not 
slow to perceive and to use the advantages which this 
contact with the English Court, official life, and society 
afforded them, and many were able to add to the extent 
of the family estate and strengthen or consolidate their 
positions. 

The dissolution of the monasteries, practically contem- 
poraneous with the summoning of Welsh members to the 
House of Commons, had also a marked effect. Those 
members of the Norman-English baronial and Welsh 
princely families who still maintained a connection with 
Wales and the Welsh marches, as well as those freehold 
tenants who by steady accumulation had acquired a superior 
status, found in this event an opportunity for adding to the 
acreage of their estates or of retrieving the family fortunes. 
A large area of the most fertile and desirable parts of the 
principality fell into new hands, and this led to the 
enlarging of the estates and improving of the position 
of the larger Welsh freeholders, and brought things from 
the estate owners' point of view into a condition not very 
dissimilar to that which exists at the present time, and 
cleared the way for dealing with the tenants (the actual 



448 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

cultivators) in the time of Elizabeth in the manner which 
has been explained above. 

The rebellion and civil wars of the seventeenth century 
had a great effect in regard to the formation of new 
estates, and the destruction or the partial breaking up 
of older ones. The Welsh gentry, as a rule, were Royalist 
in inclination and action ; though there were no doubt 
exceptions, as well as much uncertainty and tergiversation 
on the part of individuals and families. The triumph of 
the Parliament and the sequestrations and fines during 
the Commonwealth (especially in South Wales during the 
rule of the Cromwellian major-generals) caused the ruin or 
impoverishment of several of the leading Welsh families, 
brought land " into the market," and gave opportunities to 
many of the lesser gentry, and in some cases to persons of 
" mean extraction." But on the whole there was no rush 
of new-comers into Wales ; there was no wholesale destruc- 
tion and splitting up of estates ; no general extinction of 
the families of gentle blood. The Restoration undid a 
good part of what had taken place, and the general effect 
was that the more prudent, unenterprising estate owner of 
moderate opinions, living quietly at his own place, found 
the trend of events tell in favour of his own aggrandisement. 
Some of the Welsh gentry seemed to have suffered in 
the Revolution of 1688, but from that time no political 
troubles have interfered with the operation of the general 
and economic causes which told in favour of the increase 
of the wealth and power of " the landed interest " down to 
the middle of this centur\'. The polic}' of enclosing land 
added to the acreage of many estates, while the great 
industrial development (especially in South Wales on 
account of the extension of coal-mining operations) com- 
bined with a large and steady increase of the population 
of Wales, involving necessaril}-, both in town and country, 
a greater demand for land for all sorts of purposes, added 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 449 

enormously to the capital value and yearly revenue of real 
property. 

The preceding considerations lead us to infer that by the 
time of James I., Wales, like England, was divided into 
estates not dissimilar in character to those of our own day. 
They varied no doubt very greatly in size and in yearly 
value. Many freehold owners had only small parcels of 
land which they cultivated themselves. Others had free- 
holds of great extent.^ The social line of demarcation 
between classes was drawn primarily between those owners 
who lived by farming and those who depended for their 
main income upon the rents and profits of their land ; but 
the distinction was emphasised by the respective length 
and purity of the family pedigree, by connection with the 
older and then existing great families, by serving in or 
the possession of offices {e.£:, the Lord-Lieutenancy, the 
Shrievalty, Justiceship of the Peace), and the scale and 
character of the domestic establishment. The gentry class 
was already separated from the yeoman class, formed an 
order apart, was possessed of prejudices and notions that 
tended more and more to exclusiveness, and was able to 
assume, justifiably enough, the social importance, as they 
had already obtained the political power of the older 
aristocracy. 

Speaking broadly, the estates of the gentry in Wales in 
the seventeenth century appear to have been small — 
possibly many may have been extensive in area, but cer- 
tainly from the point of view of annual value they were 
as a rule very small. Major-General Berry, writing to 
Cromwell, says : " You can sooner find fifty gentlemen of 
100/. a year than five of 500/. "; and, going back to Tudor 
times, the conclusion to be formed from the observations 
of at least one contemporary observer of Wales — John 
Leland — is that the Welsh estates were then, as a rule, 

> See Report, par. i86. 
W.P. G G 



450 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

small, both in extent and revenue. Rowlands, too, in his 
" Llyfrydiaeth y Cymry " (p. 195), has preserved .some 
lines, which he describes as ancient, concerning Radnor- 
shire, which are to the same effect : — 

" Alas ! alas ! poor Radnorshire, 
Never a park, nor ever a deer, 
Nor ever a Squire of five hundred a year 
Save Richard Fowler of Abbey Cwm-hir."^ 

But perhaps the most striking piece of evidence upon this 
point is afforded by looking at the list of baronetcies con- 
ferred up to 1682. The order of baronet was revived by 
James I. with a view of raising money, but it probably 
partly owed its real origin to the desire of the noble 
families to prevent that increa.se of their numbers which 
was inevitable if something was not done to meet the 
reasonable demands of the wealthy English country gentle- 
men for hereditary titles. James offered the title of baronet 
to all persons of good repute, being knights or esquires 
possessed of lands worth 1,000/. a year, upon the terms 
of their paying 1,080/. in three annual instalments.- More 
than 200 baronets were created during his reign, and by 
1682 there had been 866 creations. Only twelve out of 
the 200 were Welsh owners, and only thirty-seven out 
of the 866.'' No precise conclusion can be drawn from 
this, but it .seems a fair and probable inference that the 
number of estate owners having more than 1,000/ a year 
from land was proportionately less in Wales than in 
England. 

1 Richard Fowler was originally a London merchant, and held Abbey 
Cwm-hir for the king in 1644 ; he was afterwards High Sheriff of Radnorshire 
under Cromwell in 1655, and was probably the father of Catherine Philips, 
" Orinda." 

- Gardiner, "History of England," vol. ii., p. 112. 

3 See the official list of 1682, published in Dugdale's "Ancient Usage in 
bearing Arms'" etc. (Lond. 1682). 



HISTORY OF LAND TENURE IN WALES. 451 

It is, however, clear from the Hst of baronets with their 
description that by the end of the seventeenth century 
some estates which have mostly become enlarged since 
then (though they may have changed hands), and which 
were even then considerable or large, had been formed. 
Mr. Lecky says : " At the beginning of the century {i.e., 
eighteenth century) there still existed in England numerous 
landowners with estates of 200/. to 300/. a year. The 
descendants in many cases of the ancient yeomen, they 
ranked socially with the gentry. . . . From the early years 
of the eighteenth century this class began to disappear and 
by the end of the century it was almost extinct."^ Similar 
remarks appear to be as true in regard to Wales, but the 
available sources of information appear to indicate, first, 
that the annual rental of the corresponding class in Wales 
was even less as a rule in the beginning of the eighteenth 
century, and secondly, that the existence of this smaller 
gentry as a class was more prolonged. The same general 
causes which, in the period from the Revolution of 1688, 
and even earlier, operated in England to extinguish the 
smaller gentry and the yeomen, were at work also in 
Wales. As to the inferior gentry class it is not possible 
to trace in detail their decline. Owing to various causes 
some sank to be mere ordinary farmers ; others sold their 
lands to substantial neighbours, or, having mortgaged their 
interests, foreclosure and ultimate sale took place. Many 
a house that was a small mansion-house and a centre of 
social life has become now a mere farm-house. 

The whole tendency of legislation and administration, as 
well as of agricultural and even industrial progress, was 
in favour of the larger estate owners. Accumulation of 
land in the hands of the fortunate survivors of the mediaeval 
and Reformation troubles was facilitated and encourag-ed 
The estate owners of Wales had their share of the benefits 

1 " History of England," vol. i., p. 557. 

G G 2 



452 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, ix.) 

conferred on the landed interest by the rule of the great 
families and the political system it involved, and their 
growing association with the same class in England led 
to their intermixture by marriage and the gradual assimi- 
lation of the former to the latter in speech, tastes, ideals of 
domestic comfort, and general habits. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. 



It is impossible to understand the evidence which the 
Commission received as to the condition of agricultural 
Wales, without taking into account the special ecclesiastical 
and religious circumstances of this part of the country. We 
desire in this chapter to avoid, so far as we can, entering 
upon the controversies which are continually carried on 
between the adherents of the Episcopal Church in Wales 
and those of the great Nonconformist bodies — controversies 
which have been accentuated by the introduction in the 
last Parliament of the Suspensory Bill and a bill for the 
Disestablishment and Disendowment of the Church in 
Wales. The existence of grave differences of opinion in 
reference to church organisation and doctrine, and the acute 
social and religious divisions created by the continual rivalry 
between different branches of the Christian Church, were 
forced upon the attention of the Commission at almost 
every sitting. There can be no doubt that this rivalry and 
these differences, with all the consequences that may be 
naturally expected to follow, are very important factors, 
even at the present time, in determining the relations of 
landlord and tenant. It is admitted on all hands that 
Nonconformity (including in that term all religious organi- 
sations other than the Established Church) is the pre- 
dominating religious power in Wales in the sense that a 
large majority of those who habitually attend places of 



454 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, x.) 

worship as communicants, members, and hearers, worship 
in Nonconformist chapels. 

Much controversy has arisen recently as to the numbers 
of Nonconformists and of Churchmen. We have no means 
of obtaining exact statistics upon the subject, and none of 
the attempts which have been made to supply correct 
figures can be regarded as entirely satisfactory. Even 
supposing that the question of the relative strength of Non- 
conformity and Anglicanism is properly to be measured 
by counting heads, we would point out that in the attempts 
that are made to ascertain the facts the opposing parties 
do not seem to be agreed upon the terms of the issue. 
Most of the Church supporters appear to rely upon the 
presumption that every one who does not habitually attend 
a Nonconformist chapel is a Churchman. Now, of course, 
there can be no doubt that the ItgdX prima facie presumption 
is that every man who does not avail himself of the rights 
given by the Act of Toleration is a member of the Church 
of England, but we need hardly point out that in measuring 
the forces of religious organisations no such presumption can 
in fact be allowed any weight. The question is not what 
number of men in Wales are de jitre members of the Church 
of England, but how many men are de facto conscientious 
believers in Church principles, communicants of the Church 
of England, and attendants at its services. In deter- 
mining to what extent in the average Welsh parish the 
inhabitants are Nonconformist or Church people, it is 
necessary to bear this point in mind. Our impression is 
that, however the question be put, the majority of the 
people inhabiting the area of the inquiry of the Com- 
mission are Nonconformist and not Anglican ; and if the 
question be more accurately put, i.e., if we ask what propor- 
tion of those who habitually attend or connect themselves 
with any place of worship are Nonconformist or Church 
people, there can be no doubt that the former class is 



THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. 455 

in a very large majority, especially in the agricultural 
districts in which the use of the Welsh language pre- 
dominates.^ 

For our purpose it is quite unnecessary to go into statistical 
details. The evidence which the Commission received 
as to the condition of things upon most of the estates 
in Wales convinced them that the immense majority of 
the tenant farmers in the country districts of Wales 
were Nonconformists, and that a state of things in regard 
to religion was disclosed that found no parallel in any 
part of England of equal area. We, from our point of 
view, do not attach so much importance to mere numbers 
as to what may be called the organic structure of rural 
society, or of the ordinary estate considered as an economic 
unit. Looked at in this way what we find is : That on the 
most typical estates in Wales the landlord and his family 
belong to the Established Church, while the bulk of the 
tenants belong to one or other of the Nonconformist 
organisations. We are not aware that a similar state 
of things exists in any English county, and there can 
be little doubt that this remarkable fact has had a powerful 
influence in creating a marked divergence between the 
opinions of the landowning class and the mass of the people, 
and in emphasising the opposing interests of landlord and 
tenant. It is not necessary to summarise the evidence received 
upon this matter exhaustively. A few extracts illustrating 
what we have said and confirming the impression which 
even a superficial observation of the Welsh counties would 
produce will suffice. 

' On this question of numbers see, among more recent contributions, "A 
Handbook on Welsh Church Defence," by Dr. Edwards, Bishop of St. Asaph 
(Lond., 3rd ed. 1895), "A History of the Church in Wales," by the 
Rev. H. W. Clarke, B.A. (Lond. 1896), "The Case for Disestablishment" 
(Lond. 1894). See also "Wales," by Sir Thomas Phillips (Lond. 1849), 
and "The Causes of Dissent in Wales," by A. J. Johnes (Lond. 1831, new 
ed. 1870). 



456 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, x.) 

Speaking in reference to this matter, Mr. John Morgan 
Davies, of Froodvale, Carmarthenshire, an agent for five 
considerable estates in the counties of Carmarthen, Pem- 
broke, Cardigan, Glamorgan, and Brecon, stated that the 
families of the present tenants had been in the same places 
for many generations, and that they nearly all habitually 
spoke the Welsh language, and were Nonconformists " to a 
man pretty nearly." ^ 

Mr. Lewis Bishop, agent for the Dynevor estate in 
Carmarthenshire, informed the Commission that the tenants 
of Lord Dynevor were all Welsh-speaking men, and mostly 
Nonconformists. He thought that there were about half a 
dozen Churchmen or so, but that there might be more.- 

Mr. Charles Bishop, in reference to nine parishes in 
Upper Carmarthenshire, said that the Welsh language was 
" their Bible and hearth language," and that " by far the 
greater majority are Nonconformists.""' 

Mr. John Davies, of Landwr, Mydrim, St. Clears, speak- 
ing of the parishes of Mydrim, St. Clears, ILandowror, and 
others immediately adjoining St. Clears, said they were 
Welsh-speaking parishes, and that for the most part the 
farmers and the labourers were all Nonconformists, though 
he added there were Churchmen in Mydrim.^ 

Mr. James Thomas, of Troedyrhiw ILanfynyd, church- 
warden of the parish, said that nearly all the farmers in 
his district were Nonconformists, and that the adherents 
of the Church of England were a very small fraction.^ 

Mr. John Emlyn Jones, of Fenian Uchaf, honorary secre- 
tary of the Tregaron Farmers' Club and a teacher of agri- 
culture, said that in the parish of Nantcwntte "... there 



' Q^i- 37,524 iind 37,621-3. 

■- Qu. 38,370 and 38, 544-6. 

^ Qu. 39,493, 39,5C'3, a"^ 39,5o6. 

* Qu. 41,943, 41.970, and 41,972. 

'•' Qu. 42,050 and 42,059. 



THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. 457 

are 84 tenant farmers holding over 4 acres. . . . Of 
those 84, 24 are Churchmen, making 29 per cent., but 
out of 46 freehold occupiers of over 4 acres in the 
parish there is not one Churchman except the vicar. 
There is one man doubtful, and I count him a Churchman. 
That gives them 2 per cent, of the freehold occupiers."^ 
The same witness further stated that in his parish 7 out of 
every 10 were Nonconformists, and that, taking the country 
round, three-fourths of the inhabitants were Noncon- 
formists according to the best estimate he could give, 
v/hile as to the Nonconformists the proportion of Noncon- 
formists to Churchmen was 60 or 70 per cent. But he 
admitted that this was a guess or estimate made from 
observation of the immediate neighbourhood." 

Mr. Owen Price, tenant farmer of Nantyrharn, in the 
parish of Cray, Breconshire, said that a very large 
majority of the tenants round Brecon, where the people 
habitually speak the Welsh language, were Nonconformist, 
though the Church was pretty strong in that neighbourhood.'^ 

In the counties of Anglesey, Carnarvon, and Merioneth, 
there can be no doubt, both from the evidence and from 
our own observation, that on nearly all the estates, if 
not indeed on all, a large majority of the tenant farmers 
belong to Nonconformist bodies. 

The Hon. R. H. Eden, the agent for the Crogan estate 
in Merionethshire, belonging to Lord Dudley, said that 
there were very few Churchmen on the estate. He really 
could hardly point to more than one or two, and we have 
every reason to believe that this is the case with regard to 
most of the estates in those three counties.'* 

Mr. Wynne, of Peniarth, said that the majority of his 

' Qu. 46,622 and 46,649. 

'- Qu. 46,752-6 and 4.6,760. 

' Qu. 50,505, 50,705, and 50,706. 

'' Qu. 9,116, 9,123, 9,207, and 9,208. 



458 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, x.) 

tenants were Nonconformists, and stated that of the 
tenant farmers on his Merionethshire estate about 46 were 
Nonconformists and 16 Churchmen.' 

Mr. W. Cadwaladr WilHams, junior, of Bendy Manor, 
Festiniog, told the Commission that most of the farmers 
spoke Welsh almost exclusively among themselves, and 
that, with very few exceptions, they were Nonconformists 
in that part of Merionethshire.- 

Mr. Morris Owen, tenant of Mr. Wynne, of Garthewin, 
said that most of the tenant farmers on the estate were 
Nonconformists, and added he did not think his landlord 
cared what they might be.'^ 

Turning now to Glamorganshire, the Rev. T. Howell, of 
Longland, Pyle, in the Vale of Glamorgan, said that in 
that district seven-eighths of the population were Noncon- 
formists.* Similar evidence and the information which 
reached the Commission from many sources confirm the 
view that of the tenant farmers and labourers in that 
county a very large majority are Nonconformist. 

No statistics, no dry statement of facts, can adequately 
explain the hold which Nonconformity has obtained on the 
Welsh people. It would be interesting to attempt to trace 
the historical causes which have led to the peculiar ecclesi- 
astical condition of Wales, but it is quite beyond the scope 
of this work to try to perform any such task. We must 
content ourselves with only a few general observations 
upon the matter, which tend to show the special points in 
the religious development of the Welsh people. 

The first thing to notice is the opposition between 
Celtic and Latin Christianity, which was ended by the 
triumph of the Roman organisation and the subjection of 

' Qu. 9,448 and 9,459. 
- Qu. 10,074 and 10,075. 

3 Q^, 14,419. 

■• Qu. 24,926. 



THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. 459 

the Welsh clergy to the Roman see,^ and next the conflict 
between the Welsh bishops and the see of Canterbury, 
which resulted in the four Welsh dioceses becoming part 
of the southern English province.^ So far as the materials 
permit us to form a judgment from the time that Latin 
Christianity prevailed over Celtic usages, there is little 
to differentiate the history of the Church in Wales from 
the course of development in England. The parochial 
system was gradually introduced into the Principality and 
the marches. The clergy obtained from time to time con- 
siderable grants of land from the Welsh princes and other 
lords. Tithe became, under the same influences as in Eng- 
land, a definite charge upon land, and the ecclesiastical law 
enforced in the spiritual courts of England was applied 
in Wales. A considerable number of religious houses were 
founded and endowed throughout the Welsh counties. 

To attempt to estimate the extent to which the prin- 
ciples of the Christian religion obtained a real hold upon 
the Welsh-speaking population before the Reformation 

' The literature connected with the early history of the Church in Great 
Britain and Ireland is very extensive. The student will find "Chapters on 
Early English Church History," by Dr. Bright (Oxford, 2nd edition, 1888), 
most serviceable and trustworthy. See also Green's "Making of England " 
(Lond. 1882), pp. 310 et seq., and " The Celtic Church in Wales," by J. W. 
Willis-Bund, F.S.A. (Lond. 1897). As to the Church in Wales, see the 
following papers in "The Transactions of the Hon. Society of Cymmrodorion " 
for 1893-4 (Lond. 1895) : — " The Ancient Church in Wales," by Lord Justice 
Vaughan Williams; "Welsh Saints,' by J. W. Willis-Bund, F.S.A. ; 
" Some Aspects of the Christian Church in Wales during the Fifth and Sixth 
Centuries," by the Rev, Professor Hugh Williams, M.A. See also, in the 
Transactions of the same Society for 1897-8 (Lond. 1899), a paper on 
" The Character of the Heresy of the Early British Church," by F. C. Cony- 
beare, M.A. Consult, of course, Haddan and Stubbs's " Councils and 
Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland" (3 vols., 
Oxford, 1867-73), 3.nd Pryce's "Ancient British Church." 

- We cannot refer to all the sources bearing on this conflict. The matter 
is discussed in Clarke's "History" cited above; see pp. 34-66. The 
petition of the Welsh Princes to the Pope will be found in Gir. Camb., Optra, 
vol. iii., p. 244. 



46o THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, x.) 

raises a question of grave difficulty, for tiie answer 
to which the data are few and uncertain. As late as 
the end of the seventeenth century, and perhaps even 
afterward, there is evidence of the survival of pagan 
ceremonies and notions.^ Probably bardic traditions, which 
were maintained with considerable vitality, contributed to 
the continued existence of an ancient order of ideas, 
while the effect of the Norman-English gradual conquest 
and the loss of national independence clearly arrested the 
progress o{ the Welsh people. It is evident from the 
account given by Giraldus Cambrensis that even after large 
tracts of territory had been occupied by Norman invaders 
the Cymric people displayed powers intellectual and aesthetic 
of no mean order when measured by the general standard 
of Western Europe at the same time. The breaking up of 
their older social organisation, the troublous and almost 
continual warfare that took place (down to the accession of 
Henry VIl., appear to have reduced the great bulk of the 
Welsh-speaking people to a condition of intellectual torpor. 
The real Welsh aristocracy, who had been the leaders of the 
people and the fosterers of their literary development, 
gradually disappeared or became merged in the English 
upper classes. When, at the end of the Wars of the Roses, 
more peaceable times arrived, the condition of the Welsh- 
speaking people gradually improved, but it must be 
remembered it was chiefly the landowning class, as dis- 
tinguished from the actual cultivators of the soil, that reaped 
the advantage of the comparatively friendly attitude of the 
Tudor monarchs to the Principality. 

It is a curious fact that, so far as appears from the 
sources of information which we are able to command, the 

' See Lecky, "History of England," ii. , pp. 602-3; Paxton Hood, 
"Christmas Evans " (Lond. 1881), pp. 26 et sec]. ; Edwin Sidney Hartland, 
"The Legend of Perseus" (3 vols., Lond. 1894-6), i. 149, 170; ii. 167, 
I75""7> 197 '!•! 202, 229, 230, 290, 292-4, 299 n., 427. 



THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. 461 

Reformation produced, so far as the Welsh people were 
concerned, little or no popular excitement. The series of 
statutes which, from the lawyer's point of view, constituted 
the reformed Church, produced little movement of opinion 
in the Principality among the Welsh-speaking people. The 
aristocratic families for the most part appear to have 
remained at heart, if not in outward observance, Catholic ; 
but by the bulk of the population it seems that the events 
of the sixteenth century were practically unnoticed. There 
was no Welsh Pilgrimage of Grace, nor did the statutes for 
the dissolution of the lesser and greater monasteries and 
religious houses create any movement of an insurrectionary 
kind in the counties with which we are dealing. The pro- 
perty of these religious houses was bestowed upon laymen, 
many of whom were the descendants of the Norman 
invaders, for small sums of money which, even at that 
time, appear to have been hardly the market value of the , 
lands in question. In all this, however, so far as we can 
ascertain, the Welsh-speaking people took little interest. 
They were plunged into a deep sleep from which even 
the civil wars and religious turmoil of the seventeenth 
century were only able very partially to arouse them. 

A statute passed in the fifth year of Elizabeth (1562) 
had made provision for the translation into Welsh of the 
Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. Twenty-six 
years, however, elapsed before the work of translation and 
publication was completely accomplished. It was by the 
meritorious labours of Dr. William Morgan, afterwards 
Bishop of St. Asaph, assisted by other clergymen, that this 
great work was performed. The Church thus rendered an 
inestimable service to the cause of religion in Wales, and 
indirectly, as pointed out elsewhere, gave a new life to the 
language and literature of the country,^ 

1 See below, p. 505. We ought to add it is Dr. Richard Parry's revised 
edition, published in 1620, that is the standard version. In 1546 a translation 



462 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, x.) 

The beginning of Nonconformity in Wales is usually 
associated with the names of William Wroth, William 
Erbury, and Walter Craddock, who, having been ejected 
from the Church, adopted an independent attitude, and 
became itinerant preachers throughout the country. The 
work of these men and others (such as Vavasour Powell, 
Morgan ILwyd, Hugh Owen, and James Owen) during the 
seventeenth century seems to have been very largely con- 
fined to the English side of Welsh life, that is to say, to 
the towns and more Anglicised portions of the Principality. 
We do not mean to ignore the fact that many of the Welsh 
Dissenting causes can trace their origin to the work of these 
active and earnest preachers, but simply to emphasise what 
appears to be the case, that the bulk of the Welsh-speaking 
population was untouched by their ministrations. So far 
as the outward legal organisation went, the position of the 
Church in its reformed condition was practically unaltered 
by the existence of a very considerable number of sporadic 
Nonconformist organisations, chiefly in South Wales, at the 
end of the seventeenth century.^ 

of the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Creed, by Sir John 
Price, LL.D., was pubUshed. William Salesbury's translation of the New 
Testament appeared in 1567. Twenty-one years afterwards {1588) Morgan's 
translation of the Old Testament, with a revised edition of Salesbury's New 
Testament, was published. The first edition of Parry's revised translation was 
published in 1620, for the use of the churches, and in 1630 a new edition, 
more suitable or the use of families, was issued. For the lives of Price, 
Salesbury, Morgan, and Parry, see "Diet. Nat. Biog.'; Rees' " History of 
Protestant Nonconformity in Wales" (Lond., 2nd ed. 1883), pp. 13 et seq. ; 
" Bywyd ac Amserau yr Esgob Morgan," by C. Ashton (Treherl)ert, 1891). 

' For accounts of the men here mentioned (except Wroth) see " Diet. Nat. 
Biog." and Rees' " History." As to the Act for the Propagation of the Gospel 
published in 1649, during the Commonwealth, and the controversy provoked by 
the proceedings of the Commissioners appointed under it, see Rees' " History," 
pp. 73 t'/ .r(V/. The Act is printed in the appendix to that work (p. 511). 
At least 106 ministers were ejected in Wales in consequence of the Act of 
Uniformity (1662). Ibid., p. 153. The first organised Nonconformist 
church founded in Wales was the Independent cause at Lanvaches, which 
dates from 1639. 



THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. 463 

The fact appears to be that as a result of the historical 
circumstances rural Wales was at the commencement of 
the eighteenth century in a condition of extreme languor. 
What spiritual earnestness there was, apart from the 
instances of exceptional parishes and exceptional clergy- 
men of the Established Church, was due to the energy of 
Nonconformist (chiefly Baptist and Independent) itinerant 
preachers. The majority of the clergy of the Established 
Church contented themselves with a perfunctory dis- 
charge, in a somewhat listless and inadequate manner, 
of their spiritual duty. The services were held irregularly, 
preaching in Welsh was comparatively rare, and it is 
not too much to say that there was a general neglect on 
the part of the parochial clergy to inculcate the truth 
among their parishioners or to give practical instruction in 
regard to the conduct of life. The upper classes, speaking 
broadly, were virtually English, and in their manners 
and social habits reflected the prevailing condition of things 
in England. There can be no doubt that one of the 
principal difficulties was that created by the fact that in 
most of the rural parishes, except those of the border 
counties, the people habitually spoke the Welsh language. 
The stipends of the parochial clergy were so inadequate 
that the type of man who took orders and accepted the 
average Welsh living cannot, upon the most favourable 
construction, be deemed to havd been cultured or efficient. 
We are not without some definite information as to the 
precise condition of things in the seventeenth century as well 
as in the eighteenth, and this information enables one to 
understand how it was that earnest and able men, throwing 
over the bonds of ecclesiastical discipline, were enabled to 
obtain a hold upon the affections and minds of their 
countrymen to the detriment of the more formal organisa- 
tion of the Established Church. 

We will give two illustrations. First of all we will take 



464 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, x.) 

an extract from a report of an episcopal visitation made 
by Dr. Lewis Baily, Bishop of Bangor, in 1623 : — " ILan- 
fairpvviigwyngytt and ILandyssilio. — There had been only 
two sermons in these places for the last twelve months, 
which were delivered by the rector. Sir (or Rev.) John 
Cadwalader. Penmon.— No sermon preached there five 
or six years last past, ll.and'ona. — No service here but 
every other Sunday. ILangwyttog. — No sermons at all. 
ILanddeussant and ILanfairynghornwy. — The curate here 
is presented for not reading service in due time, for not 
reading of homilies, and for not registering christenings, 
weddings, and funerals. They had but three sermons since 
last Whitsuntide twelvemonth. He spent his time in 
taverns, was a public drunkard and brawler, quarrelling 
with his parishioners and others. ILanfwrog and ILan- 
faethlu. — But two sermons here these last twelve months." 
These remarks relate to parishes in Anglesey, but there are 
similar accounts in regard to Carnarvonshire, Merioneth- 
shire, Montgomeryshire. As to several places it is reported, 
" No sermons," or only two or three in the last twelve 
months. Of the clergyman at Aberdaron, in Carnarvon- 
shire, it is complained that he neglected to bury a dead 
child, which lay uninterred from Saturday to Sunday, and 
that on one occasion when he came to the church he 
seemed drunk, and went straight from the service to the 
tavern.^ 

The next illustration is furnished by " A View of the 
State of Religion in the Diocese of St. David's, about the 
Beginning of the Eighteenth Century," by Dr. Erasmus 
Saunders, which was published in 1721, nearly a hundred 
years after the visitation of the diocese of Bangor, from the 
report of which we have quoted, had taken place. According 
to the account given by Dr. Saunders it appears that both 

' See the " History of Protestant Nonconformity in Wales," by tlie Rev. 
Thomas Rees, D.D. (Lond. ist edition 1861, 2nd edition 1883), p. 8. 



THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. 465 

the material and the spiritual condition of the Church in 
Wales was deplorable. He states that some churches were 
decayed and " do only serve for the solitary habitations 
of owls and jackdaws ; such are St. Daniel's, Castelhan, 
Kilvawyr, Mountain, CapelColman,and others in Pembroke- 
shire ; Mount ILechryd, in Cardiganshire ; Aberttynog, in 
Breconshire ; Nelso, in Gower, Glamorganshire ; and others 
in Carmarthenshire. And it is not to be doubted, but as 
there are districts of land, so there were originally just 
endowments of tithes that did belong to all those several 
churches ; but, whatever they were, they are now alienated, 
the churches, most of them, demolished, the use for which 
they were intended almost forgotten, unless it be at 
ILanybrec, wherv% I am told, the impropriator or his tenant 
has let that church unto the neighbouring Dissenters, who 
are very free to rent it for the desirable opportunity and 
pleasure of turning a church into a conventicle. As the 
Christian service is thus totally disused in some places, 
there are other some that may be said to be but half 
served, there being several churches where we are but 
rarely, if at all, to meet with preaching, catechising, or 
administering of the Holy Communion. In others, the 
service of the prayers is but partly read, and that perhaps 
but once a month, or once in a quarter of a year. . . . 
The stipends are so small that a poor curate must some- 
times submit to serve three or four churches for 10/. or 12/. 
a year. . . . And now what Christian knowledge, what 
sense of piety, what value for religion, are we reasonably to 
hope for in a country thus abandoned, and either destitute 
of churches to go to or of ministers to supply them, or 
both ? Or how can it well consist with equity and 
conscience to complain of the ignorance and errors of an 
unhappy people in such circumstances .'' They are squeezed 
to the utmost to pay their tithes and what is called the 
Church due (though, God knows, the Church is to expect 
W.P. H H 



466 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, x.) 

little from it), and at the same time most miserably 
deprived of those benefits of religion which the payment 
of them was intended to support, and delivered up to 
ignorance and barbarity, which must be the certain conse- 
quence of driving away the ministers of religion, or of 
depressing or incapacitating them from their duty."^ 

We might easily multiply testimony to a similar effect 
as to the religious condition of the Principality. 

Summing up the condition of things, we may say that 
there were an indifferent upper class, a clerg)- wretchedly 
paid, of low moral and spiritual type, and a people 
ignorant to the last degree cultivating the soil, for the 
most part unable to read and write, and habitually speaking 
a language unknown to their superiors ; the fabric of*the 
churches in a large number of parishes had been suffered 
to go out of repair ; the discipline of the clergy was very 
lax ; the bishops were often non-resident pluralists ; there 
was a general neglect of Church services 'and administra- 
tions ; and, lastly, there was no zeal and enthusiasm for 
religion either among the clergy or their flocks. This 
condition of things, due to the historical causes operating 
for centuries in the Principality, was aggravated by the 
fact that the population was by race and language distin- 
guished from those who ruled them, and still more by the 
fact that the bishops and other dignitaries of the Church 
who formed the more educated portion of the Welsh 
clergy exercised little control for good in their respective 
dioceses and spheres of influence. 

We state these things not with a view to asserting that 
they have any necessary relevance in regard to modern 
controversy, but as statements of fact connected with 
the Church which tend to explain the rise of Noncon- 

' See Saunders' " A View of the State of Religion in the Uiocese of 
St. David's" (1721) ; Lecky, " History of England in the Eighteenth Century " 
(Lond. 1888), vol. ii., pp. 602-4. 



THE. RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. 467 

formity in Wales upon a large and even extraordinary 
scale. 

Now, such being the state of things in the Principality 
at the commencement of the eighteenth century, one 
migh^ have expected that in days of comparative enlighten- 
ment the rulers of the Church would have attempted to 
cope with the ills and grievances that existed. Far from 
doing that, the policy of the ministers of the early 
Hanoverian sovereigns — a policy apparently acquiesced in 
without remonstrance in any effective degree by English 
archbishops and bishops — was one that ignored the special 
needs of the Principality, especially the necessity of sup- 
plying the Church in Wales with a clergy able to speak 
the Welsh language and to satisfy the spiritual requirements 
of the people. One would have thought that the dictates 
of self-interest, without considering higher motives, would 
have led the leaders of the Church party in England to 
encourage the education of the Welsh clergy, and to 
secure the appointment to office in the Principality of men 
who were able to preach and administer the sacraments in 
the Welsh language. It became, however, the apparently 
determined course of action of English ministers to appoint 
to the Welsh bishoprics and to the most lucrative offices 
connected with the Church, persons entirely ignorant of 
the Welsh language. Whether this was due to an inten- 
tional attempt to crush out Welsh, or whether it was due 
simply to ignorance of the condition of things in the 
Principality, and to a misunderstanding of the vitality 
of racial and linguistic conditions among a free people, 
we will not try to decide. Suffice it to say that from the 
time of George I. down to 1870 none of the bishops 
appointed to the four Welsh sees were able to preach 
effectively in Welsh, and, speaking broadly, the episcopate 
during that period was English and not Welsh, judged by 
whatever test one may be pleased to adopt. Most of 

H H 2 



468 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, x.) 

the persons who accepted the Welsh bishoprics during 
the years to which we alkide took their appointments 
simply with a view to further preferment. Of the six 
bishops appointed by George I. all were translated to 
English sees. George II. appointed twenty-one bisho[)s, 
and fifteen were translated to England. During the reign 
of George III. twenty-three bishops were appointed to 
Welsh sees, and of these eleven were translated to 
England. 

Another evil was clerical absenteeism. Some of the 
parochial clergy did not reside in their parishes, but the 
chief offenders were the bishops and dignitaries. The 
Bishops of n^andaff were absentees from 1706 to 1820, and 
similar, but not such gross, instances may be given in the 
case of other prelates. 

But probably a still greater abuse was the system of 

pluralities. The most celebrated instance of the abuse 

of episcopal patronage in Wales is the case of Bishop 

Luxmoore, who was first of all Bishop of Hereford and 

was made Bishop of St. Asaph in 181 5. He seems to 

have regarded his office as merely one of profit. The 

bishop himself had several clerical offices, but it was the 

exercise of his patronage and of his influence in favour 

of members of his own family that forms the principal 

indictment against him. The Rev. C. C. Luxmoore, 

his eldest son, was (i) Dean of St. Asaph (1,988/.); 

(2) Chancellor of St. David's (tithes 868/. with 400/. a year 

from fee.s) ; (3) Rector of Whitford (902/.) and Darowen 

(155^-) ; (4) in Hereford, Rector of Cradley (1,024/.) ; 

(5) Vicar of Bromyard (513/) ; (6) ot portion of Bromyard 

(1,400/); (7) Prebendary of Hereford (50/.); (8) lessee of 

the manor of Landegle, belonging to the bishop and leased 

to him by his father ; (9) he had a lease of the tithes of 

Landegle (117/.) and of Landsa (651/.) for life from his 

father for 100/. a year. His total annual income, therefore. 



THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. 469 

was yfii^l. commuted value, which was equal to 9,522/. 
non-commuted value ; also 450/. from other sources, total 
9,972/., or, deducting the lOO/. for the lease, 9,872/. 

The Rev. J. H. M. Luxmoore, another son, held (i) the 
sinecure rectory of Lan-yn-yal (462/) ; (2) the rectory of 
Marchwiail {6^,61.) ; (3) Morton Chapel (600/) ; (4) Preben- 
dary of Melford (65/) ; (5) he had 200/. a year as joint 
registrar of Hereford Cathedral. 

The Rev. C Luxmoore, the bishop's nephew, received 
(i) the vicarage of Berriew (445/) ; (2) the rectory of 
Lanymynech (385/) ; and one Coryn Luxmoore received 
300/. a year from Guilsfield. The total income from Church 
sources of the five Luxmoores, therefore, was about 25,225/, 
and in contrast with this it may be mentioned that the 
working clergy of the diocese of St. Asaph received only 
1 8,000/^ 

It is unnecessary to multiply instances of abuses in 
connection with the Church system of the eighteenth 
and the earlier part of this century, as it actually worked, 
or to make further comments upon the matter. We 
have mentioned this case not with any hostility to. the 
Church in its present more active condition, but in 
order that the causes which led to the predominance of 
Nonconformity in Wales may be understood. 

The religious aspect presented by Wales at the com- 
mencement of the eighteenth century, so far, at any rate, 
as the rural districts where the Welsh-speaking population 
chiefly resided were concerned, may be compared to that 
of the Irish Church ; and the Church was utilised by the 

' For these facts see Clarke's " History," cited above, p. 142 et seq. Cf. 
Spencer Walpole's " History of England," vol. i., p. 149. Luxmoore was an 
opponent of Romilly's attempts to amend the criminal law of the time. He is 
specially mentioned by S. Walpole as one of seven bishops " who thought 
it consistent with the principles of their religion to hang a man for shop-lifting." 
See his Hist., vol. ii., p. 133. It is said Majendie, Bishop of Bangor, held 
eleven parochial preferments (ibid., vol. i., jd. 153)- 



470 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, x.) 

eighteenth century governments rather as a poh'tical 
machine than as a spiritual force. The inhabitants of 
the Welsh counties were divided into two classes very 
unequal in numbers : a landowning class, aristocratic in 
type, speaking for the most part the English language 
alone, in close touch with the same class in England, 
actuated by the same motives and imbued with the same 
prejudices ; and the other class chiefly cultivators of the 
soil, habitually speaking the Welsh language, retaining 
many views of life, ideas, and traditions belonging to an 
earlier stage of civilisation, lively in character, imagina- 
tive, quick in action, passionately devoted to music and 
country pursuits. Both classes appear to have been equally 
indifferent to religious duties, and unconcerned with those 
deeper problems of a philosophical and spiritual character 
which have occupied so large a part in the intellectual 
life of Wales since the revival to which we must now 
allude. 

In 1735 there were only eight Nonconformist places of 
worship in North Wales ; in South Wales there were very 
numerous Nonconformist causes, some of them strong and 
flourishing, and most of them served by able and worthy 
ministers. But the Nonconformity characteristic of this 
earlier phase of the movement was of a type analogous 
to that of the Independency and Presbyterianism of the 
time of the Great Rebellion. Speaking broadly, it may be 
looked upon as the result of the spread of seventeenth 
century Puritanism in the Welsh counties, and, as we have 
stated above, it was mainly English rather than Welsh in 
its character, and affected rather the towns and the more 
English districts than those parts of the country which 
were distinctively Welsh. It is probable that the Welsh 
farmers and their families had hardl}' progressed intel- 
lectually as a class from the time of the Conquest. Every 
indication that we possess shows that hardly any one of 



THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. 471 

them could read or write, and it is clear that the provision 
for education was of the scantiest possible description. 
Wesley, writing some years after the description given by 
Dr. Erasmus Saunders, to which we have referred, says that 
the people were as ignorant as the Creek or Cherokee 
Indians, and allowing for rhetorical exaggeration and 
applying it to their culture rather than to their acquire- 
ments as agriculturists, the phrase is probably true. 

One is tempted to say that the intellect of the Cymry, 
which had been active and progressive in the days of their 
independence, became practically dormant and non-pro- 
gressive with the loss of their cherished liberty. The effects 
of the Conquest arrested their mental development, and 
what progress there may have been was confined chiefly 
to members of the landowning class, to whom, after the 
accession of Henry VII., the colleges and universities of 
England were thrown open, and in a less degree to the 
inhabitants of the towns, who were enabled to take 
advantage of the scanty and inefficient education afforded 
by the grammar schools founded in some of the boroughs. 
Of course some fortunate members of the tenant farming 
or very small yeoman class under exceptional circum- 
stances went to the English universities and carved out a 
career for themselves in England. But from the people 
as a whole hardly a voice comes during the centuries 
from the Norman Conquest to the middle of the eighteenth 
century. They tilled their land, attended to their flocks 
and their herds, married and died in complete obscurity, 
without being to any great degree touched by the intellectual 
movements of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It 
is obvious that we have here all the elements necessary for 
a sudden intellectual and moral expansion. The renaissance 
of Wales during the eighteenth century came, as might have 
been expected, in the form of a religious revival which in 
its inten.sity and its consequences can only be compared to 



472 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, x.) 

the analogous movement in Bohemia hundreds of years 
before, and the awakening of Scotland in the sixteenth 
century. 

In 1730 the Welsh-speaking people were probably as 
a whole the least religious and most intellectually back- 
ward in England and Wales. By 1830 they had become 
the most earnest and religious people in the whole 
kingdom, and in the course of their development had 
created powerful Nonconformist bodies stronger than 
those to be found in any other part of the country, while 
the adherents of the Church had in the Welsh districts 
dwindled down to a comparatively small class. The 
Methodist revival which produced this striking result, 
and which in many respects resembled that which took 
place under Whitfield and Wesley in England, was 
commenced within the bounds of the Church. Its origin 
is usually associated with the name of Griffith Jones, 
of ELandowror, but it was Howell Harris and Row- 
lands, of ILangeitho, who carried the movement to a 
triumphant success. In the face of continual and violent 
persecution these men by their extraordinary preaching 
aroused the people from their lethargy. We need not 
give details of their methods, nor the steps by which the 
work was accomplished, but in order that the conditions 
under which it was carried on may be understood, and 
to illustrate the state of feeling at the time, we extract 
from an impartial and unimpeachable source the following 
facts as to Harris : — 

" He seems to have given great provocation, and he 
certainly met with extreme hostility. He made it his 
special mission to inveigh against public amusements, and 
on one. occasion during the races at Monmouth, when the 
ladies and gentry of the county were dining together in 
the Town Hall, under the presidence of a duke, H. Harris 
mounted a table which was placed against the window 



THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. 473 

of a room where they were, and poured forth a fierce 
denunciation of the sinfulness of his auditors. The people 
and clergy were furious against him. I have already 
noticed how Seward, who was one of his companions, was 
killed by the mob. On one occasion a pistol was fired 
at H. Harris ; on another he was beaten almost to death ; 
again and again he was stoned with such fury that his 
escape appeared almost miraculous. He was repeatedly 
denounced from the pulpit. The clergymen were seen dis- 
tributing intoxicating liquors among the mob to excite 
them. Another, who held no less a position than that 
of Chancellor of the diocese of Bangor, stirred up 
whole districts against him. Women in his congrega- 
tion were stripped naked. Men were seized by the 
pressgangs, and some of his coadjutors had to fly for 
their lives." ^ 

The movement was fortunate in its leaders. A series of 
great preachers continued the work of Harris and Row- 
lands. The example set by these men infused new energy 
into the earlier Nonconformist bodies, and in connection 
with them also a number of remarkable preachers, whose 
eloquence and skill in pulpit oratory have rarely, if ever, 
been equalled, arose to carry on the religious work of their 
denominations.^ The result was that by the middle of this 
century a very large number of Nonconformist causes had 
been created in Wales, a powerful and efficient clergy had 
arisen, and the organisation of each denomination had been 
brought to a state of great efficiency. We are not for the 
moment concerned so much with the religious aspect of 
this movement as with its effect upon the character and 
capacity of the Welsh-speaking people, and its influence 

' Lecky, " History of England," vol. ii., pp. 604-5. 

^ For the lives of the more important among the long list of Welsh 
preachers see Rees's " History." A good account of the characteristic 
methods of Welsh preaching wilHbe found in Paxton Hood's "Christmas 
Evans" (Lond. 1881). 



474 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, x.) 

upon economic and social progress. By many persons 
unacquainted with the facts the whole revival is looked 
upon as one of those manifestations of dissent which 
have arisen from time to time to disturb the peace of 
an organised Christianity. It may be looked at in that 
light ; it was no doubt a religious revival, but the 
moment its inner meaning is penetrated, the circumstances 
of its origin and its progress understood, it becomes 
apparent that it was a good deal more than that. It 
was, in fact, the new birth of a people. It would be going 
too far to say that it created a new national character — 
that, of course, was impossible ; but it profoundly changed 
and strengthened the mental and moral qualities of the 
Welsh-speaking people. In the highly-strung and sensitive 
natures it produced a saintly type equal to any afforded 
by the literature or tradition of the Church. Among the 
people, who, as a whole, threw themselves into the move- 
ment, it developed intellectual powers which may have 
before existed, but which were only imperfectly utilised. 
It induced men who had never indulged in speculation 
to raise and to discuss fundamental religious and philo- 
sophic problems, and stimulated to an extraordinary degree 
the argumentative and imaginative faculties of a naturally 
quick-witted race.^ It turned the attention of men to 
the art of oratory and to the capabilities of language. 

^ In support of this statement one of us can vouch for the following story. 
About thirty years ago an English professor of theology and a Welsh preacher 
were taking a morning walk in a very Welsh county, and sat down to rest 
awhile in a field. Near by two farm labourers, who were finishing their 
mid-tlay meal, were talking in Welsh. Their loud tones and excited gestures 
attracted the attention of the visitors. Said the Professor: "Are they 
quarrelling?" "Well," replied the Preacher, "they are not quarrelling 
more than is usual in a debate on a theological point. They are discussing 
the question whether Christ had two wills or one. The Monothelite contro- 
versy is revived." For the benefit of the professor the preacher translated 
the conversation as it proceeded, and the judgment of the former was that the 
arguments urged by each disputant were as subtle and absurd as any of those 
to be found in the old books. 



THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. 475 

Fortunately the Welsh translation of the Bible currently 
used is as good a specimen of Welsh pure and undefiled 
as the current English version is of the language of 
England. Practically every Welsh-speaking person became 
acquainted in a very high degree of familiarity with the 
text of the Scriptures ; and, lastly, it improved the general 
moral tone of the people, though perhaps it made them, 
when its results were quite fresh, take a somewhat one- 
sided view of life and of culture. 

The principal result of the movement may* be thus 
summed up : First, it was the chief agent in the preser- 
vation of the Welsh language. It is probable that but 
for the immense impetus given to the study and use of 
the Welsh language by reading the Welsh Bible and by 
listening to pulpit oratory it would have more and 
more tended to die out as the habitual language of 
the majority of the inhabitants of the whole of Wales. 
Secondly, it led to general and greater literary activity. 
This is shown by the increase, gradual but certain, of 
the number of books, in the early days chiefly of a 
religious character, published from time to time, and by 
the rise of Welsh periodical literature and Welsh journalism. 
Thirdly, it stimulated a demand for education. The neces- 
sity of a trained Nonconformist clergy became at a very 
early stage evident to the leaders of the movement, and 
theological seminaries and colleges were founded.^ And 
this demand for an educated ministry in its turn gave 
rise to that general and spontaneous demand for education 
for all classes with which we deal in the next chapter. 
Fourthly, in a smaller degree, but still by no means ineffec- 
tively, it did what at an earlier date the Church generally 
had done for England and other parts of Western Europe. 
The Welsh Nonconformist clergy, placed under the very 
gravest disadvantages from the absence of all provision 
' See as to the Welsh Theological Colleges p. 483, n. i. 



476 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, x.) 

for any education in the Principality, and shut out from 
the English colleges and universities by the tests there 
imposed, triumphed over obstacles to a much larger extent 
than is generally known. It is true that even down to 
the early years and middle of this century many of the 
Welsh Nonconformist ministers were deficient in scholastic 
attainments, and few, if any, could be described as 
scholars in the strict sense of the term ; but in their 
own special departments — in theology and philosophy, 
and in regard to Welsh and even English literature — 
many of them attained a high standard of knowledge. 
In all cases their culture was so much higher than that 
of the average farmer and labourer that their intercourse 
with the latter on social occasions, quite apart from their 
religious services, produced a most beneficial effect in 
nearly every district. Fifthly, it operated continually in 
the direction of improved morality. It is admitted 
that there is no part of the country more law-abiding 
and possessing a higher degree of immunity from crime 
than the Welsh agricultural counties. This must be very 
largely attributed to the religious revival. Lastly, it pro- 
duced a great change in the Church itself. No impartial 
observer can fail to be struck with the immense improve- 
ment in the character of the clergy of the Established 
Church in Wales. In place of the negligent and generally 
ignorant and incompetent clergy of the early part of the 
eighteenth century there is to be found in Wales as active 
and competent a body of parochial clergy as in any equal 
area in England. And it is to be observed that some of 
the most distinguished among them are persons sprung 
from Nonconformist families. We will not discuss the 
question whether the Church is developing its power and 
influence at the expense of the Nonconformist bodies, or 
whether the latter are declining in power. We will con- 
tent ourselves with saying that nothing we observe either 



THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT. 477 

in the evidence or from sources of information opened 
to us by our journeys in the Principality support any 
such inference.^ 

• Since about the middle of the century Welsh and English Nonconformists 
have been brought into much closer touch. The high level of excellence 
attained by Welsh pulpit orators has resulted in a considerable demand for the 
services of Welshmen in English churches. - Taking, for instance, the Inde- 
pendent denomination, and confining ourselves to men who have passed away, 
we may mention the following instances of ministers who began their careers 
in Welsh churches and afterwards became pastors of English causes : — Caleb 
Morris, J. R. Kilsby Jones, and Thomas Jones, of Swansea (see "Diet. Nat. 
Eiog."). Six bi-lingual preachers have been elected to the Chair of the 
Congregational Union of England and Wales : — David Thomas, of Bristol 
(1865); Thomas Jones, of Swansea (1871); Thomas Rees (1885); John 
Thomas, of Liverpool (1885) ; Herber Evans, of Carnarvon (1892) ; and John 
Morlais Jones, of Lewisham (1896). 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT. 

It would take an undue portion of the space at our 
command to attempt to trace fully the progress of education 
in the Principality, and we must content ourselves with 
only the very briefest statement of the way in which the 
present system has been established. It may be worth 
mentioning that in the century that elapsed between the 
conquest of North Wales and the rebellion of Owain 
Glyndwr, a considerable number of Welshmen seem to 
have gone to Oxford, but in the disastrous period that 
followed its suppression this influx seems practically to 
have ceased. Glyndwr himself, as is evident from a letter 
of his addressed from Pennal to the king of France in 1405,^ 
projected the establishment of two universities in Wales, 
and Henry VII. (according to a Welsh bard of the period) 
promised to establish a Welsh university in Neath Valley ; 
but though the dreams of Glyndwr and the promises of 
Henry Richmond remained unfulfilled, the accession of 
the latter marked the commencement of an important 
period in the social and educational progress of the Welsh 
people. The attitude of the Tudor monarchs towards the 

' See Wylie's " History of the Reign of Henry IV.," v. ii., pp. 313-4, where 
an account of the negotiations between O. Glyndwr and Charles VI. of France 
is given. In a letter dated March 31st, 1406, from Pennal, Glyndwr suggested 
that two universities should be established, one in North and the other in South 
Wales, the exact places to be determined afterwards, 



THE EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT. 479 

Principality was distinctly encouraging and friendly, and 
with the advent of a period of peace after the battle of 
Bosworth Field, the Welsh people found themselves able 
to take advantage with comparative ease of the educational 
institutions of England. The Universities of Oxford and 
Cambridge, and the schools which had been in the Tudor 
or at an earlier period established, were in a large measure 
thrown open to the sons of the Welsh gentry and, in some 
instances, of the actual cultivators of the soil. 

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a considerable 
number of grammar schools were founded in the towns of 
Wales, and gradually attracted to them a large number 
of distinctly Welsh pupils. It must be borne in mind 
that one of the features of Welsh society from the time 
of Edward I., down to the Reformation, was the marked 
distinction between the people of the towns and the 
country districts. The towns were for the most part more 
English than Welsh, while it was in the country districts 
that the Welsh-speaking people were numerous. The 
distinction between the Englisherie and the Welsherie 
found in the borough charters and the oppressive legis- 
lation of the fifteenth century long continued, especially 
in the marches bordering upon the English counties. 
From the time of the accession of Henry VII. it 
gradually disappeared, and towns which had been practi- 
cally Norman-English garrisons slowly became markedly 
Welsh ; but for a long time traces of the older order 
of things remained, and it was not difficult, even at the 
commencement of the century, to find a market town 
almost entirely English, while the surrounding country 
was occupied by people who habitually spoke the Welsh 
language. The grammar schools established after the 
Reformation in accordance with the policy of the reformed 
church, no doubt, were attended not only by the sons of 
the town burgesses, but also by the sons of yeomen and 



48o THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xi.) 

small landowners, though probably it was only excep- 
tionally that the Welsh-speaking people availed themselves 
of the opportunities thus afforded. The foundation of 
grammar schools was in the main associated with the 
Established Church, and they were carried on under its 
auspices. The country districts were entirely neglected, 
and down to the time of the religious revival of the 
eighteenth century, it is hardly too strong to state that 
no opportunity was afforded to the great majority of the 
Welsh-speaking people for the education of their children. 
All accounts show that the condition of the Welsh people 
in regard to education was most lamentabl}' backward 
down to comparatively recent times, but especially so until 
the time of the religious revival. 

The foundation of a Welsh university was the subject of 
a correspondence between Oliver Cromwell and Richard 
Baxter,^ whilst a remarkable attempt was made in the 
latter part of the seventeenth century to provide instruc- 
tion in Wales in the English tongue, and to circulate the 
Bible, the Common Prayer, and other books in the Welsh 
language. The Rev. Thomas Gouge, son of Dr. William 
Gouge, with the assistance of Dr. Tillotson (first Dean 
and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury), Dr. Stilling- 
fleet, and many others, formed a voluntary society for this 
purpose, and considerable funds were collected in pursuance 
of that object. The society, with the assistance of Gouge 
and of James Owen, who ultimately became a Noncon- 
formist minister, did a very large amount of good educa- 
tional work in Wales, and, according to the funeral sermon 
of Gouge, preached by Dr. Tillotson, by the exertions of 
the society there were every year eight hundred, sometimes 
a thousand, poor children educated, while a " new and very 
fair impression " of the Scriptures and Liturgy of the Church 
of England was distributed. The work of this societ}- was 
' See "Wales," vol. iii., pp. 121-4 (March, 1896). 



THE EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT. 481 

to some extent carried on in \A ales by the Society for 
Promoting Christian Knowledge. As early as 1701 the 
attention of this then new society was directed to Wales. 
It decided in 1707 to set up lending libraries in the Prin- 
cipality, and in 1 7 1 1 a supply of books to furnish four 
such libraries was sent to Carmarthen, Cowbridge, Bangor, 
and St. Asaph. 

The next considerable movement in this direction 
took place under the influence of the Rev. Griffith Jones, 
Vicar of Landowror, in Carmarthenshire, who was 
admitted a corresponding member of the society in 17 13. 
It was in the year 1730 that this eminent divine opened 
at Landowror the first circulating school. By 1738 
thirty-seven circulating schools had been established by 
his agency in South Wales, in which 2,400 persons 
received instruction, and by 1739 the number in North 
and South Wales had risen to seventy-one, wherein 3,989 
persons were taught. In 1746 the number of the schools 
of Griffith Jones had risen to 116, and in 1760 to 215. 
The system according to which this movement was carried 
on, was, as the name " circulating school " implies, itinerant ; 
the schools were only carried on for a short time each year 
at one place, and the manner of instruction was chiefly 
catechetical. The instruction in the schools was not con- 
fined to children, and it appears that in many of them 
quite two-thirds of the pupils were adult men and women, 
and most of the masters taught for three or four hours 
in the evening, after school time, very many who could 
not attend during the day. At the time of the death 
of Griffith Jones in 1761 these schools appear to have 
increased in number to 218, and as many as 10,000 persons 
are said to have been taught to read in a single year. The 
schools were continued until 1779-80, when, owing to a 
dispute respecting the funds which had been bequeathed 
by Griffith Jones for the carrying on of the schools, and 
W.P. I J 



482 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xi.) 

consequent litigation, they were closed for many years. 
The charity came again into operation in 1809, under a 
scheme made under the direction of the Court of Chancery 
on the nth July, 1807.^ 

In the meantime, however, Sunday schools, as a means 
not only of religious instruction, but of elementary secular 
education, had originated and spread to Wales, chiefly 
under the influence of Thomas Charles of Bala. These 
schools introduced into Wales by Charles quickly spread 
over the whole Principality, and are now carried on in 
connection with the Established Church as well as with 
the various Nonconformist bodies. It is unnecessary for 
our purpose to detail the efforts of a voluntary kind made 
by the National Society and the British Society for 
elementary education in Wales during the first half of this 
century, but, as the report of the Commissioners appointed 
in 1846 clearly shows, these efforts, creditable though they 
were, were wholly inadequate having regard to the increase 
of population and the exigencies of modern times. At the 
present moment the public educational system of Wales 
is equal to that established in any part of the Empire, 
and is the result partly of a general movement throughout 
the whole kingdom, but in a still larger degree its complete- 
ness and success are due to the spontaneous desire for 
education among the Welsh people themselves. The 
modern educational movement originated among the 
Welsh-speaking people largely as an indirect result of 
the religious revival which we have described in outline 
in the preceding chapter, aided (as it undoubtedly was) by 
the literary renaissance of the early part of the century, and, 
so far as education other than that of the public elemen- 
tary schools is concerned, has been principally fostered by 

' For a fuller account of tbe movements summarisetl in this paragraph, see 
" Wales," by Sir Thomas Phillips (Lond., 1849), ch. 7, pp. 247-314. See, 
too, Lecky, "Hist, of Engl, in the Eighteenth Century," i'., pp. 603-4. 



THE EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT. 483 

the remarkable sacrifices made by all classes of persons 
in Wales. Even before 1846 the spread and success of 
Nonconformity had resulted in the formation of seminaries 
chiefly designed for the education of persons intending to 
become Nonconformist ministers, to whom the grammar 
schools of Wales and the universities of England were 
closed by reason of the imposition of religious tests.^ 

' For an account of the principal seminaries, see Rees's " Protestant Noncon- 
formity in Wales " (Lond., 2nd ed., 1883), c. 8. The earliest Nonconformist 
Academy was that at Bryniiwarch, near Bridgend, Glamorganshire, started soon 
after 1662. Its fomider was Samuel Jones, M.A., for some time tutor at Jesus 
College, Oxford (see sub noin., " Diet. Nat. Biog."). It wason his death moved 
to Abergavenny, but it was afterwai^ds removed to the neighbourhood of 
Bridgend, and the Rev. Rees Price, the father of Dr. Richard Price, of London 
(as to whom see j?<(^ «(?;«. , "Diet. Nat. Biog. "), for some years presided over it. 
After some vicissitudes the institution was transplanted to Haverfordwest, and 
thence to Carmarthen. It was not a corporate body, and its constitution was 
entirely uncertain. Such as it was, it was dissolved in 1794 ; but a voluntary 
theological school, which traces its origin to the earlier academy, was 
re-established at Carmarthen in 1795, and still exists as the '• Presbyterian 
College, Carmarthen." We give these particulars because this institution is 
directly connected with the work of Samuel Jones, and is open to all Protestant 
Nonconformists. The Theological Colleges recognised by the University of 
Wales under its statutes are : The Theological College, Bala ; the Baptist 
College, Bangor ; the Congregational College, Bangor ; the Memorial College, 
Brecon ; the Baptist College, Cai-diff; the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen ; 
the Baptist College, Aberystwyth ; St. David's College, Lampeter ; the 
Calvinistic Methodist College, Trevecca. (See Statute xx., and Standing 
Order viii. ; Calendar of the University of Wales, 1898 (Newport), p. 47.) 
The Brecon Memorial College may justly claim to be an offshoot of Samuel 
Jones's Academy. Its existence as a separate institution dates from 1755, when 
it was established at Abergavenny. After several changes in the locality of its 
work, it settled at Brecon in 1836. (Rees's " History," pp. 495, 497 ; "Album 
Aberhondu," edited by the Rev. T. Stephens, B.A. (Merthyr Tydfil, 1898).) 
The Baptist College, Cardiff, was founded in 1807 at Abergavenny, transferred 
to I'ontypool in 1836, and thence to Cardiff quite recently. There was an 
earlier Bapt'St seminary established at Trosnant, near Pontypool, about 1732, 
which carried on work for many years. (Rees's " History," p. 504; " Hanes 
Athrofeyd y Bedydwyr yn Sir Fynwy," by the Rev. J. Rufus Williams (Aber- 
dare, 1863).) The organised Calvinistic Methodist Colleges are of later date, 
as the denomination separated formally from the Church of England only as 
late as 181 1. By its charter the Welsh University has the power of conferring 
degrees in the faculty of Theology or Divinity (Art. xiv., 7), and has exercised it. 
Grave fears were entertained that in the divided state of public opinion on matters 

I I 2 



484 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xi.) 

it is unnecessary for us to detail the history of these 
institutions, but we must advert for a moment to the 
Commission appointed on the ist October, 1846, in 
pursuance of proceedings in the House of Commons on 
the motion of Mr. VVilham WiUiams of the loth March 
preceding, for an address praying her Majesty to direct 
an inquiry to be made into the state of education in the 
Principahty of Wales, especially into the means afforded 
to the labouring classes of acquiring a knowledge of the 
English language.^ The Committee of Council on Educa- 
tion appointed three Commissioners (Mr., now Lord 
Lingen, Mr. Henry Robert Vaughan Johnson, and the 
late Mr. Jelinger Cookson Symons). The Commissioners 
appointed as assistants a certain number of gentlemen 
possessing a knowledge of the Welsh language, and 
conducted their inquiry between the middle of October, 
1846, and the end of the summer of 1847, ^"''^1 their reports 
were published separately before the close of that year. 
Incidentally they contain a considerable quantity of material 
which illustrates the conditions of the agricultural popula- 
tion at the time. It does not appear that the Com- 
missoners went beyond the topics included within the 
scope of their inquiry by the remarks which they thought 

of religious profession serious difficulty might arise in this faculty. In fact, this 
has not been the case. The Court (the legislative and executive authority of 
the University) established the faculty of Divinity by Statute xxiii., and created 
a Theological Board (Statute xxi.) on a representative basis. The duties of 
the Board are to recommend to the Court schemes of study in the faculty, the 
names of examiners, and to report on other matters. Such has been the 
admiraljle spirit displayed by all connected with the University from the first 
that nearly every form of Christian belief has been and is represented on 
the Boaid. Under its advice regulations for the B. D. and D.D. degrees have 
been made, upon which the only criticism has been that the standard of 
learning which they postulate is high. 

' The motion for the inquiry was made in 1S46 by William Williams 
(b. 179S ; d 1S65), who was M.P. for Coventry, 1835-1847, and Lambeth, 
1850-63. He was a generous supporter of the Welsh educational movement. 
See App. to Report, p. 43. 



THE EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT. 485 

fit to make upon the moral and religious condition of the 
people, but their observations aroused considerable contro- 
versy in Wales, and were widely challenged by representative 
men of all shades of opinion.^ It was, perhaps, unfortunate 
that they did not confine themselves more strictly to the 
educational questions with which they were primarily 
directed to deal. The inquiry became known among 
Welsh people as " The Treason of the Blue Books " {Brad 
y Lyfrau Gleision). For a time the cause of Welsh educa- 
tion may have been prejudiced by the introduction of 
sectarian and social questions into their reports, but, on 
the whole, the very fact that attention was drawn to the 
state of education in Wales in a very forcible manner was 
ultimately productive of good. It is hardly too much to 
say that the chief event in the special history of Wales 
during the last fifty years has been the modern educational 
movement which has culminated in the system now existing, 
and which may be traced directly to the agitation produced 
by the observations of these Commissioners. 

We must content ourselves with a very brief account 
of what has taken place. Dealing first with elementary 
education, we may mention that the report of the Com- 
missioners of 1846 disclosed the very greatest inadequacy 
in the provision for elementary schools. There were a 
certain number of schools in receipt of a share in the 
education grant, but in many parishes there was no school 
at all, except a merely voluntary school started as a private 
adventure. To some extent the opposition of the leaders 
of the Nonconformist organisations to the receipt of money 

' The Reports were criticised by Dr. Lewis P'.dwards in Y Traethodylt 
for 1848 ; by the Rev. Evan Jones (leuan Gvvynefl) — some of whose essays 
were republished under the title of " The Dissent and Morality of Wales," by 
the Rev. William Rees (Gwilym Hiraethog) in Yr Aniseraii ; and by Mr. 
Henry Richard, afterwards M.P. fur Merthyr, in a lecture. See Mr. Lleufer 
Thomas' notes and analysis of the Reports in App. to the Report, pp. 43 
et seq. 



486 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xi.) 

from the Government for educational purposes {i.e., pur- 
poses looked on as quasi-religious) retarded the spread of 
" British " schools and the securing for Wales of the benefits 
of the Government grant. There was a gradual improve- 
ment down to 1870, when the Education Act was passed. 
In no part of the country has that Act been productive 
of more beneficial results than in Wales, and it may be 
observed that in proportion to the population there are 
a greater number of school boards than in any other part 
of England and Wales. The system at work is, so far as 
elementar)' education is concerned, assimilated to that of 
England in nearly every respect. 

One of the great difficulties of education in Wales dis- 
covered by the educational reformers was the want of 
adequately equipped teachers speaking the Welsh language. 
Mr. Symons reported that "the meagre prospect of income 
which presents itself to a schoolmaster in Wales deters all 
but those whom poverty or want of activity compel to have 
recourse to so unenviable a status for their means of liveli- 
hood.' At that time (1846) only one normal school existed 
in Wales, and that owed its establishment to the efforts of the 
Rev. Henry Griffiths, of Brecknock, aided by a few other 
friends of education. This school appears to have been 
established under the mastership of Evan Davies, M.A., 
LL.U. in 1846, and was afterwards transferred to Swansea, 
where, however, it lost its character as a normal school, and 
was continued for many years as a secondary school where 
many Welshmen who have subsequently distinguished them- 
selves received their education. In 1862 there was estab- 
lished at Bangor a normal college for the training of male 
teachers for elementar)' schools in Wales, and the last few 
years have witnessed the development of training schools 
or colleges, both for male and female teachers, which are 
now worked under the auspices of the univcrsit}' colleges 
recently established. During the same period Church training 



THE EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT. 487 

colleges for school teachers were established at Carmarthen 
and. Carnarvon, the latter being subsequently removed to 
Bangor. In 1849 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Hugh Owen addressed 
meetings of school teachers and educationists at Bangor 
on the importance of establishing a connecting link between 
the elementary schools and higher places of education. 
This led to the formation of the North Wales Scholarship 
Association, which was wound up on the passing of the 
Intermediate Education Act, after awarding upwards of 
3,000/. in scholarships on the results of examinations at 
different centres. 

Turning to intermediate education — that is to say, to the 
kind of education preliminary to higher or university educa- 
tion — there appears to have been a gradual improvement 
from the middle of the century down to the time of the 
passing of the Intermediate Education (Wales) Act, 1889, 
which has since resulted in a complete system of secondary 
education. Fresh energy was infused into the grammar 
schools, their constitutions were in many instances improved, 
and the character of the teaching changed very greatly for 
the better. In the meantime the movement for higher or 
university education had outstripped that for the improve- 
ment of intermediate education, and the establishment of 
three university state-aided colleges at once disclosed the 
necessity for a further improvement in the character of the 
education given at the middle-class and grammar schools. 
For it was found when the colleges began their work that 
the pupils who came to them at the age of sixteen, or 
even later, were in most instances hardly fit to enter 
upon university studies. Attention being thus directed 
in a pressing manner to the defects of the provision for 
secondary education, the Intermediate Education Act of 1 889 
was passed. This Act provided for the levying of a \d. 
rate in the Welsh counties by the then recently constituted 
county councils, and for the appointment of joint education 



488 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xi.) 

committees in every county, who were to be charged with 
the duty of preparing schemes utiHsing existing educational 
endowments and buildings, and, where necessary, supple- 
menting them by the establishment of new schools of a 
public character to be carried on under county governing 
bodies constituted under each scheme. Schemes under this 
Act have now been passed for ever)- county, or nearl}' ever}' 
county, in the Principalit}'. 

It was found as the system was being gradually 
developed that for many purposes it would be expedient 
for the county governing bodies to combine to a greater 
or less extent for the carrying on of their work, especially in 
regard to using any general funds that might be available 
for scholarships and exhibitions, and for the purpose of 
inspection and examination of the intermediate schools ; and 
accordingly it -was proposed that a Central Board for inter- 
mediate education, controlling in some degree the action 
of the different county governing bodies, should for those 
purposes be established. A contribution of 500/. a }^ear was 
promised by the Treasury. Ultimately the scheme for 
establishing a Central Board was laid before Parliament, 
and was, in the course of the session of 1 896, passed.^ 

We turn now to higher or university education. At the 
commencement of the century there was no college giving 
real university education in Wales. A certain number of 
theological colleges or seminaries had, as we have seen, 
been established in connection with the Nonconformist 
bodies, but from want of means and an inadequate 
conception of education they could hardly be considered 
as institutions of university rank. The Established Church, 

' The Central Board was constituted in tlie course of 1S97. Mr. A. C. 
Humphreys-Onen was elected chairman ; Principal Viriamu Jones, F.R.S., 
vice-chairman; and Mr. Owen Owen, M.A., chief inspector. For a fuller 
account of the Welsh sybtem of intermediate education and its history, see 
vol. ii., p. I, of "Special Reports on Kducational Sulijecis,'' issued by the 
Education Department, 1898 (c. 8943). 



THE EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT, 489 

which, as we have pointed out above, had sunk in the early 
years of the eighteenth century to a low condition in point 
of spiritual energy and practical power, had under the 
influence of the evangelical revival in Wales and Eng- 
land considerably strengthened its position, largely, no 
doubt, stimulated by the formation of a Calvinistic Metho- 
dist organisation, and by the immense increase of Noncon- 
formity. One of the principal needs of the Church at that 
time was the securing of an adequate supply of Welsh- 
speaking clergymen with a proper range of theological 
learning and general culture. Among all classes of Welsh- 
men this need was felt, and, it appears, it was in regard to 
the necessity of training young men for the Christian 
ministry that the idea of equipping the Principality with 
institutions giving higher education originated. It was 
under the influence of this impulse that St. David's College, 
Lampeter, avowedly intended to be associated with the 
national Church, was founded in the year 1827 and incor- 
porated in 1828. By charters granted in 1852 and 1865 it 
was empowered to confer the degrees of B.D. and B.A. 
upon its students. 

Nothing further of an important character was done in 
the direction of higher education for many years in Wales, 
though the equipment of the theological colleges was 
gradually improved ; but the general controversy about 
education led to the suggestion in 1853 that a national 
university, open to all, without distinction of creed, should 
be founded. Mr. B. T. Williams (barrister-at-law, afterwards 
judge of county courts) wrote an essay in which the claims 
of Wales to a university were ably set forth. In the next 
year a meeting of London Welshmen, in conjunction with 
representatives of different interests in the Principality, took 
place in London, and among those who were present at this 
memorable gathering were Mr. Hugh Owen, the Rev. Henry 
Rees, Mr. (afterwards Sir) George Osborne Morgan, the Rev. 



490 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xi.) 

Richard Humphreys, Dr. David Charles, Dr. Lewis Edwards 
of Bala, Mr. Richard Davies (afterwards Lord-Lieutenant 
of Anglesey), and Mr. Enoch Gibbon Salisbury. To the 
interchange of opinion at this and similar meetings held 
about that time, and a little later, may be traced the origin 
of most of the modern developments of the Welsh educa- 
tional .system. The idea of a university did not take 
definite form till several years had elapsed, but the move- 
ment initiated by these gentlemen led, as we have seen, to 
the establishment of the Bangor Normal College in 1862, 
which, in its turn, led to a further development. 

Mr. George Osborne Morgan and Mr. Morgan Lloyd, in 
1863, convened a conference upon the general subject of 
Welsh education on the 1st December in that year at the 
Freemasons' Tavern, London. The meeting was held under 
the presidency of Mr. William Williams, M.P. for Lambeth, 
and subscriptions for considerable amounts were promised 
by those interested in the subject. Resolutions in favour 
of establishing a univ^ersity were passed, and an executive 
committee appointed. Dr. Nicholas (who had read a paper 
on the subject at the Swansea National Eistedfod a few 
months previously) was made secretary, under the control 
of Mr. Osborne Morgan and Mr. Hugh Owen as hon. secre- 
taries. Mr. Williams, M.P., accepted the office of treasurer, 
and Mr. Morgan Lloyd that of sub-treasurer. Dr. Nicholas 
acted as secretary until 1867, when he was succeeded by 
Dr. Charles, who held the post until 1871. 

Negotiations then took place with Dr. Perowne, Vice- 
Principal of St. David's College, for the establishment of an 
unsectarian university college in combination with his 
college. Differences, however, as might naturally have been 
expected, arose, and the executive committee were obliged 
to pass a resolution on June i6th, 1864, that further con- 
sideration of that " which appears to us an admirable arrange- 
ment " should be deferred. At the same time the executive 



THE EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT. 491 

committee prosecuted with the utmost energy during the 
following year the carrying out of the scheme for a Welsh 
university. No opportunity was lost by these energetic and 
patriotic men of enlightening public opinion upon the matter 
and enlisting every interest on behalf of the proposed institu- 
tion. The orig-inal idea of the executive committee was 
the establishment of a degree-giving university, but as the 
movement more and more took practical shape, it was seen 
that the best way of attaining this was in the first instance 
to secure the foundation of a college giving university 
education of a high standard, whose students should be 
encouraged to graduate at the University of London. 

The efforts of the executive committee being concen- 
trated upon this definite object, from 1865 to 1872 it 
made frequent appeals to people of all classes in the 
Principality, or those connected with Wales, for funds. 
From 1 87 1 until his death Sir Hugh Owen acted as secre- 
tary and organiser, and gave up all his time to the work. 
Buildings at Aberystwyth were secured for 10,000/., and the 
college was opened under the principalship of Dr. Thomas 
Charles Edwards, assisted by two professors, in the follow- 
ing year ( 1 872). The balance of the amount collected (about 
12,000/. in all), after payment of the purchase-money, was 
applied to the completion of the buildings and the main- 
tenance of the staff until 1874, when a new fund was 
created by congregational and house-to-house collections, 
local committees being organised for the purpose in North 
and South Wales. The middle and working classes, espe- 
cially the tenant farmers, contributed most nobly in pro- 
portion to their means, while generous contributions were 
made in London. For ten years the institution received no 
grant or aid from the Treasury. The contributions of the 
Welsh people to a college which they learnt to look upon 
as national were cordially continued, and it is calculated 
that in all some 60,000/ were found by the Welsh people. 



492 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xi.) 

The foundation of the college had the result of exposing 
the inadequacy of the provision for intermediate education, 
and ultimately the leaders of the movement induced the 
Government in 1881 to appoint a committee to inquire 
into the condition of intermediate and higher education 
in Wales. The committee was presided over by Lord 
Aberdare, and with him were associated Viscount Eml)'n, 
M.P., the Rev. Prebendary Robinson, the late Mr. Henry 
Richard, M.P., Professor Rhys, and Mr. (now Sir) Lewis 
Morris. After taking evidence very exhaustiveh', the com- 
mittee reported on the i8th August, 1881. In their report 
they explained the then condition of intermediate and 
higher education in Wales, summarised the evidence as to 
its educational requirements and the suggestions offered as 
to the way in which they should be met, recommended 
the reorganisation of the Welsh endowed schools, and 
the formation of additional schools. It is unnecessary 
for us to go into the details of the report. In regard 
to higher education the committee said : " We hav-e no 
hesitation in avowing our conviction that colleges of this 
kind (pro\'incial colleges) which have been recently 
founded in many of the larger towns of England, are 
desirable in the circumstances of Wales, and would be 
found conducive to the advancement of higher education 
in the country. Amongst a people like the Welsh, who, 
though defective in regular .scholastic training, have a 
natural turn for some forms of literar)- culture and self- 
improvement, such institutions would tend to stimulate the 
desire for more advanced education b}' providing oppor- 
tunities for obtaining it under the conditions most suited to 
the position and requirements of the nation. The experience 
of the University College at Aberystwyth, where various 
adverse causes have operated, must not be taken as con- 
clusive against the success of such colleges in Wales." 
They recommended that for the present only one college 



THE EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT. 493 

ill addition to that already existing should be provided, the 
establishment of that college in Glamorganshire ; and 
that either Aberystwyth College should be retained, or 
re-established in North Wales at Carnarvon or Bangor. 
In regard to the constitution of the colleges they expressed 
the opinion that they should be adapted to the circum- 
stances of the country, that science and modern languages 
should occupy a prominent place, that they should be 
unsectarian, and that their benefits should be accessible to 
women. As to the question of a degree-conferring univer- 
sity they reported that, notwithstanding certain drawbacks 
and difficulties, the existence of a Welsh university would 
almost certainly exercise a beneficial influence on higher 
education in Wales, and they suggested the extension of 
the charters of St. David's College, Lampeter, to the other 
colleges. 

The recommendations of this important report have 
been given effect to in almost every particular. In 1882 
an annual grant of 4,000/. was given to Aberystwyth 
College,^ but difficulties arose as to the adoption by 
North Wales of the college at Aberystwyth as the North 
Welsh College, and ultimately it was decided to establish a 
college at Bangor, in Carnarvonshire, while in South Wales 
immediate steps were taken for the foundation of the pro- 
posed college in Glamorganshire. A grant of 4,000/. to 
each college was promised by the Treasury, and generous 
contributions to both were made by all classes of the 
community throughout the Principality. The site of the 
South Wales College was a matter of dispute between 
Cardiff and Swansea, and ultimately was fixed at Cardiff, 

1 The relation of the Aberystwyth College to the Treasury was special. In 
1882 a grant of 4,ocx3/. was accorded ; but on the establishment of the college 
at Bangor in 1884, this was transferred to that body, but a separate grant of 
2,500/. was given to Aberystwyth. In 1885 the grant was raised to 4,000/. 
("Reports from University Colleges," etc., Education Department, 1897, 
c. 8530.) 



494 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xi.) 

by the award of Lord Carlingford, Lord Bramwell, and 
Mr. Mundella, to whom the dispute was referred. The 
college was started at Cardiff in the year 1883, and the 
North Wales College (by the award of the same arbitrators 
as between thirteen competing towns) at Bangor in 1884. 
A petition had been duly presented for a charter for the 
establishment of the college at Cardiff, and such a charter 
was granted by her Majesty on the 7th October, 1884. 
Somewhat similar charters were granted to Bangor College 
on the 4th June, 1885, and to Aberystwyth College on the 
lOth September, 1890. 

The establishment of the three colleges has been amply 
justified, and the number of students has steadily increased 
at each institution.^ It was, of course, natural that when 
the three colleges came into working order the demand for 
a degree-granting national university, which had never been 
lost sight of, should be revived. It was at a meeting of the 
Cymmrodorion section of the National Eistedfod, which 
met in London in August, 1887, that the first definite step 

' According to tlie "Blue Book" of the Education Department, published 
in 1897, containing reports from the University Colleges (1897, c. 8530), the 
number of students pursuing regular courses of study in the Welsh Colleges 
for the session 1895-6 was as follows : — 

Aberystwyth ........ 352 

Bangor ......... 226 

Cardiff 391 

In Lent Term, 1S97, the number at Aberystwyth was 374. 

The figures only deal with university students. Cardiff College, however, 
works in connection with the County Councils of Cardiff, Glamorganshire, and 
Monmouthshire. The number of students in attendance at the technical 
school of the county borough of Cardiff was 2,716 in 1895-6. According to 
the " Report of the Principal of Cardiff College for 1897-8,' the number ot 
regular students had risen to 470, and we understand there was an increase for 
the same session in the other colleges. In addition to the faculties of Arts and 
Science, Cardiff has estalilished departments in Medicine, Engineering, and 
Mining and Metallurgy, while Bangor and Aberystwyth have established 
Agricultural departments. (See "Report,' pp. S01-810, and Principal 
Reichel's observations quoted on p. 816.) Day training departments have 
been founded at all three colleges. 



THE EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT. 495 

was taken. Principal Viriamu Jones, of Cardiff, opened a 
discussion on Welsh education with a paper in which, among 
other things, he advocated the formation of a degree-granting 
university to crown the " educational edifice." He pointed 
out that without university organisation it was impossible 
to have a well-arranged educational system, and that the 
efficient development of all grades of education in Wales 
was bound up with the foundation of a properly constituted 
university, which, he urged, would order the scattered and 
disconnected results of previous action as a magnet arranges 
the iron filings within its field of force. The views advanced 
met with immediate acceptance. The Cymmrodorion 
section passed the following resolution, which was pro- 
posed by Professor John Rhys and seconded by Mr. (now 
Sir) Lewis Morris : " That it is the opinion of this meeting 
that definite action should be taken to impress on her 
Majesty's Government the desire of the Welsh people for 
the establishment of a Welsh university." And it was 
further resolved, " That in the opinion of this meeting a 
conference of the representatives of colleges, intermediate 
schools, and elementary schools should be summoned in a 
convenient place in the near future, and that the Society 
of Cymmrodorion be requested to take the initiative in 
convening it." 

The conference was summoned by the Cymmrodorion 
Society to meet at Shrewsbury in January, 1888, and in 
due course the conference was held, under the presidency 
of Professor Rhys. It was resolved, " That in the opinion 
of this conference it is expedient that the provision for 
intermediate and collegiate education in Wales and 
Monmouthshire should be completed by a university 
organisation, and that the inspection of State-aided 
intermediate schools should be committed to the Welsh 
university, due provision being made for the representa- 
tion of such schools on its executive body ; that the 



496 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xi.) 

executive committee should be requested to make arrange- 
ments to enable the members of the conference to meet 
the Welsh peers and the members of Parliament for 
Wales and Monmouthshire at an early date." This 
conference with members of Parliament took place on 
the 1 6th March, 1888. 

At a meeting of the Court of Governors of the Bangor 
College on the 27th April, 1 888, the following resolution (the 
late Earl of Powis being in the chair) was passed, after much 
discussion, on the motion of the Rev. Ellis Edwards, 
seconded by Professor Rhys : " That the Courts of 
Governors or the Councils of Aberystwyth and Cardiff 
Colleges be invited to appoint four (subsequently increased 
to seven) representatives each, to meet an equal number 
appointed by this court, to formulate a draft charter for a 
degree-conferring university." In the early part of July in 
the same year, a conference so constituted assembled in 
London and passed the following resolutions : " That this 
meeting, representing the three Welsh university colleges, 
is of opinion that the time has come when these colleges 
should conjointly apply to the Government for a charter 
for the establishment of the University of Wales ; " and 
" That an application be made to the Government for a 
charter to constitute a university for Wales on the same 
general lines as the charter already granted to the Victoria 
University, with such modifications as may be required by 
the peculiar conditions and circumstances of Wales." In 
the course of discussion some differences of opinion revealed 
themselves, but the above resolutions having been pas.sed it 
was decided to present them to the Lord President of the 
Council, and they were accordingly submitted on July 15th. 
Nothing further, however, was done for .some time, chiefly 
owing to the divergent ideas as to the character of the 
university, to which allusion has been made, and it was felt 
by those concerned that it was best to allow opinion to 



THE EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT. 4,97 

form itself by continual discussion, with a view, if possible, 
of arriving at practical unanimity.^ 

At a meeting of the Court of 'Governors of the Bangor 
College on April ist, 1891 (Mr. Wm. Rathbone, M.P., in the 
chair), the following resolution was carried, on the motion 
of the Rev. Ellis Edwards, seconded by the Lord Bishop 
of St. Asaph : — " That a committee be appointed by this 
court to consider again the means of obtaining a degree- 
conferring University of Wales ; and to deliberate upon this 
question, with, if possible, similar committees appointed by 
Aberystwyth and Cardiff Colleges, and with the joint educa- 
tion committees of North and South Wales ; and to report 
the result of its deliberations at the next half-yearly meeting 
of the court." The conference so constituted met on 
November 8th of the same year at Shrewsbury, and it was 
found that the effect of deliberation during the preceding 
two years and a half had resulted in the general conclusion 
that the university ought to be a teaching university in the 
sense that no candidate should be admitted to a degree 
unless he should have pursued a course of study at one of 
the colleges of the university, and it was also resolved to 
appoint a committee to prepare the outlines of a draft 
charter. The committee met many times in the course of 
1892, and as a result were able to present in a series of 
clauses the substance of the proposed charter to a con- 
ference which met on January 6th, 1893, and after 
full discussion, and with slight alteration, it was adopted 
by that body. In the framing of this, the original 
draft, a very large part of the work fell upon the three 
principals of the national colleges, Principal Viriamu 
Jones, Principal Reichel and Principal Roberts, and Dr. 
Isambard Owen, but they had the benefit of efficient 

* The chief difference of opinion was on the question whether the university 
should be a teaching university or an examining Board, constituted on the 
lines of the then University of London. 

W.P. K K 



498 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xi.) 

assistance from many men whose names we cannot here 
record.^ 

In the meantime Mr. Acland, Vice-President of the Council 
in the Government newly formed in 1892, who had for some 
years specially associated himself with the Welsh educa- 
tional movement, appointed Mr. O. M. Edwards, M.A., of 
Lincoln College, Oxford, to report on the condition of the 
' colleges in relation to the proposition for the creation ot a 
university. Mr. O. M. Edwards duly made his report, and 
though it has not been made public, we may assume that 
it represented that the case for a degree-granting university 
for Wales had been made out, from the fact that when the 
petition was presented by the Draft Charter Committee to 
the Privy Council, it met with ready acquiescence. The 
instructions for the charter having been approved of by the 
conference of January, 1893, the preparation of the formal 
document was left to Dr. Isambard Owen in conjunction with 
Mr. David Brynmor-Jones, Q.C., M.P., and Mr. Cadwaladr 
Davies, while Mr. Maynard Owen undertook to act as 
honorary solicitor to the petitioners. In February and 
March, 1893, the charter was drafted in general accordance 
with the instructions laid before counsel. It was then 
submitted to a representative conference, held in London 
in the latter month, and presided over by Lord Aberdare. 
After prolonged discussion it was adopted with slight altera- 
tion!?. A petition for the granting of a university charter 
in the terms of the draft thus settled was presented in the 
names of the three University Colleges to the Privy Council ; 
the prayer of the petitioners, notwithstanding an adverse 
petition from St. David's College, was acceded to, and the 
charter as .settled, with however an additional clause, was 
laid in due course on the table of each House of Parliament. 
It met with opposition in both places. In the Upper 

' See note, p. 500. For the history of the University see "The University 
of Wales, " by Principal Viriamu Jones, F. R.S. (Cardiff, 1896). 



THE EDUCATIONAL MOVEMENT. 499 

House the Bishop of Chester (Dr. Jayne), on the 29th 
August, 1893, acting in the interests (as he conceived them) 
of St. David's College, moved a resolution praying the 
withholding of the consent of the Crown, framed in terms 
which showed an imperfect acquaintance with the pro- 
visions of the charter.^ After a short debate the House, 
against the advice of Lord Knutsford, one of the leaders of 
the then Opposition, and of Lord Kimberley, Lord Aberdare, 
and Lord Herschell, passed the motion. In the Commons 
it was Mr. Bryn Roberts, one of the Liberal members for 
Carnarvonshire, who led the attack, by moving the rejec- 
tion of the charter on the ground that it only provided for 
the granting of degrees to students of the three University 
Colleges. In a clear speech he explained that his opposi- 
tion was based on the contentions that the charter gave 
privileges to three State-aided colleges which might be used 
unfairly as against other Welsh institutions, and that no 
opportunity was afforded by the charter for the obtaining of 
degrees by non-collegiate students. He received no sub- 
stantial support, and after a brief debate, during which the 
motion was opposed by Mr. Brynmor-Jones, Mr. S. T. Evans, 
Mr. Kenyon, and Mr. Acland, it was negatived without a divi- 
sion. Under these circumstances the Government ignored 
the ill-grounded resolution of the Lords, and on the 30th 

' The Bishop of Chester asked the House to express the opinion " that the 
assent of her Majesty be withheld- from the draft charter of the proposed 
University of Wales until such portions of the aforesaid draft charter 
shall have been omitted as prevent the incUision of St. David's College, 
Lampeter, in the county of Cardigan, as a constituent college of the aforesaid 
university" ("Hans. Pari. Deb.," 4th series, col. 1321). In fact, there is 
nothing in the charter to prevent the inclusion of St. David's College, or any 
other Welsh college, in the university. The Crown, by the charter, expressly 
reserved to itself the right to make J^y supplemental charter any college in 
Wales a constituent college (see Lord Knutsford's speech in the debate). 
St. David's College never asked to be included as a constituent college, and 
the late Bishop of St. David's very candidly admitted that he had made no 
representations on the subject, though he was " visitor " of the college. The 
House was a small one. The numbers on the division were forty-one contents 
and thirty-two non-contents, 

K K 2 



500 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xi.) 

November, 1893, the charter was duly sealed. The petitioners 
(still actively represented by the committee whose labours had 
procured the charter) now found that there was literal truth 
in the saying that " Nothing succeeds like success." The 
Court of the University (the governing body) was easily con- 
stituted, as the greatest eagerne.ss to join it was manifested by 
members of all classes in the thirteen counties. It met for 
the first time at the Privy Council Office in London, on the 
6th April, 1 894, and the proceedings began with a sympathetic 
address by the Lord President of the Council (Lord Rosebery). 
Upon his withdrawal from the meeting Lord Aberdare was 
voted to the chair, and the proper steps were taken for con- 
verting the then real but inchoate University into an active 
working body. It would lead us beyond the scope of this 
work to follow them in detail. The late Lord Aberdare was, 
with the unanimous approval of the Welsh people, elected 
the first Chancellor. After his death Albert Edward, Prince 
of Wales, was, with remarkable enthusiasm, chosen without 
a dissentient voice for the office, and he having accepted it, 
was duly installed as Chancellor on the 26th June, 1896, at 
a " congregation " of the University held at Aberystwyth.^ 

' For the names of the officers of and full information as to the University, 
see the "Calendar of the University of Wales" (Newport, Mon.), 1898. The 
first Calendar was published in 1897. In a short sketch of a movement like the 
one dealt with in this chapter, one carried on for many yeais and supported 
from different quarters, we have found it impossible to refer by name to all the 
men who have rendered assistance. Among those whose experience enabled 
them to give valuable expert service at different stages, but all of whom we 
have not had occasion to mention in the text, are certainly the following : — 
The Rt. Rev. John Owen, D.D., now Bishop of St. David's; Mr. R. D. 
Roberts, D.Sc. ; Mr. Mavchant Williams, J. P. ; Mr. Ivor James, now Registrar 
of the University ; Mr. Geo. T. Kenyon, lately Member for Denbigh Boroughs ; 
Mr. Lewis Williams, J. P., of Cardiff; the Hon. W. N. Bruce ; Lady Verney ; 
and Miss E. P. Hughes. The strenuous support of the movement by the late 
Dr. David Thomas, of Stockwell, in the Press should not be forgotten. 
(See his life in "Diet. Nat. Biog.") The late Earl Powis, the Marquis of 
Bute, Lord Tredegar, Lord Rendel, Mr William Rathbone, LL. D. (formerly 
M.P.), the late Mr. T. E. Ellis, M.P., Mr. Alfred Thomas, M.P., and 
Mr. Stephen Evans, should be remembered as having been very helpful friends 
at all times. 



CHAPTER XII. 

LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 

The position of Welsh among the kindred languages 
has already been sufficiently indicated : genealogically, so 
to say, it is on a level with old Cornish and with Breton, 
which was carried over to Arniorica by Celts who left this 
country in the fifth and the sixth centuries under the 
pressure of West Saxon aggression. In all respects old 
Cornish was the least important of the three sisters, and 
of the other two Welsh is philologically the more im- 
portant, partly because of the more conservative nature 
of its vowel system, and partly because of its more exten- 
sive and varied literature, some of which exists in manu- 
scripts dating from the twelfth century. Welsh is, 
indeed, the lineal descendant of the Brythonic of the 
Ordovices : it is true that it must have been modified by 
the later people, who introduced the early form of the 
Powys dialect, and also probably by the Silures and 
Demetae of the southern portions of Wales, and by the 
Venedotian tribes of northern Wales, when on both hands 
they gave up Goidelic and adopted Brythonic as their own 
tongue. They must have introduced peculiarities charac- 
teristic of their previous vernacular — they could not help 
it. Nevertheless the language must have remained, as 
we have suggested in the first chapter, the same in most 
essentials as it was when first brought to Mid- Wales by 
the westward conquests of the Ordovices. From them it 



502 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

spread itself doubtless towards the north and towards the 
south, though the Silures in the south were probably sub- 
jected to the influence of the Brythonic of the tribes also 
to the east of them. 

This state of things had begun before the Roman occu- 
pation, when the question of the linguistic conditions 
becomes complicated by the introduction of Latin. But 
however much the language of imperial Rome may have 
prevailed in the towns, and as the official speech of both 
Romans and Brythons during the period of Roman rule, it 
is probable that Brythonic continued uniformly dominant 
as against Goidelic. until the latter was at length silenced 
in southern Britain in the sixth and seventh centuries. 
In the presence of the Latin of the Roman occupation 
Goidelic may have appeared on a level with Brythonic ; 
nay, the invention of Ogmic writing and the existence of 
Goidelic inscriptions in that writing may perhaps be rightly 
interpreted as the fruit of a transitory effort to rehabiHtate 
Goidelic speech and to assert Goidelic nationality. But, so 
far from Latin and Goidelic having silenced Brythonic, the 
latter may be dimly descried as the dominant figure in 
the background even of Goidelic monuments themselves. 
The grammarian who invented the Ogam alphabet lived 
probably in South Wales, and he must have been familiar 
with Latin letters ; but that is not all, for he, or some 
improver of his system soon after him, had to borrow some 
of their orthographic expedients from Brythonic phonetics 
and spelling : we allude to the use of cc and // for the 
sounds now written in Welsh ch and th^ respectively. 
Further, when a Goidel in Wales indulged in a bilingual 
epitaph and used Latin and Goidelic, the Latin forms of 
the names prove, in some instances, to be not the Goidelic 
names Latinised, but the Goidelic names transformed into 
Brythonic, and then equipped with the Latin terminations 
' See Chambers's Encyclopi\;dia, s.z\ 'Ogam." 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 503 

required. Thus a bilingual monument at St. Dogmael's, 
near Cardigan, reads in Goidelic written in Ogam, 
Sagramni maqiii Cunataini, and in Latin, Sograni fili 
Cunotami. Here the genitive Cunatami is translated into 
the Brythonic genitive CraiGtami, and probably the same 
remark might be made as to Sagranini and Sagrani. 
A still more remarkable instance occurs on a recently 
discovered stone at Lanfailteg, in Carmarthenshire. The 
name involved is that possibly of the king of the Demetae 
who is called (in the vocative) Vortipori^ in the Latin of 
Gildas, his contemjwrary. This we should, in that case, 
have to correct into Votipori ; and the presence of the 
consonant p in the name of a Goidel, whose language had 
at one time no use for that consonant, is explained by the 
fact that the name in the Latin form is a Brythonic trans- 
lation of the original, as will be seen from the legends on 
the stone respectively, in Latin : — MEMORIA VOTEPORIGIS 
PROTICTORIS ; and in Ogam the genitive Votecorigas. We 
are not convinced that these and similar upcroppings of 
Brythonic on Goidelic ground can be explained on tl:e 
hypothesis, sometimes suggested, that Brythonic became 
extinct in Wales during the Roman occupation, and 
was reintroduced by the Sons of Cuneda and their 
people. From before the occupation began it must have 
existed in the country, and more than that, it must have 
gradually spread, since it finally became for a time the 
only vernacular of the west of the Island. That it should 
have done so in Wales is no more surprising than that it 
did the same in the Dumnonian peninsula, or than the fact 
that there is an actual Breton language in Armorica. 

For the earlier stages of Brythonic we have no literature, 
but merely the proper names of men and places mentioned 

1 The latter element in this compound occurs as a separate name Porhis, on 
the Lech Idris stone, in Merionethshire (Hiibner's Inscr. B)-it. Christiana:, 
No. 131) ; and one finds it borne by an essedarius who was probably a Gaul ; 
see the Caligula of Suetonius, 35. 



504 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

in works written in Latin or Greek from the time of Pytheas 
down. The earliest Welsh glosses do not in all probability 
reach back to the eighth centurj^ but they fairly cover the 
ninth and the tenth. To this, the Old Welsh period, may 
be ascribed several boundaries and other bits of Welsh in 
the Book of Lan Uav, otherwise called Liber Laftdavensis. 
But no manuscript appears to be extant in Welsh dating 
before the Norman Conquest, which, among its other effects 
on Wales, brought about a great change in Welsh hand- 
writing and spelling. The old orthography was discon- 
tinued and another introduced more in harmony with 
English and French ideas ; it had also the advantage of 
being more nearly phonetic than the old historical spelling, 
which was displaced by it, and which resembled to a great 
extent the spelling usual in Irish down to comparatively 
modern times. 

The mediaeval period of Welsh opens with two manu- 
scripts dating from the latter part of the twelfth centur\-, 
one of pK)etr\- known as the Black Book of Carmarthen, 
and the other of prose, namely, the Venedotian Version of 
the Laws of Wales. To a somewhat later date belong the 
manuscripts of the Book of Aneurin and the Book of 
Taliessin, as to which, especially the former, it may be said 
that the contents point to an earlier date than that of the 
manuscripts themselves. The same may also be said of 
portions of the Red Book of Hergest, one of the treasures 
of Jesus College. The contents of the Red Book are 
various, consisting partly of poetry and partly of prose, 
embracing the tales known as the Mabinogion, and referred 
to originals dating before the fourteenth centun,-, to which 
the manuscript belongs. The same remark applies 
to some of the Arthurian stories which that collection 
contains. In this period translations into Welsh, or 
\\ elsh adaptations, were made of such stories as those 
in vogue on the Continent about Charlcmacrne and his 



LANGUAGE AXD LITERATURE. 505 

companions, also of the lives of famous saints, and of 
treatises on Latin theology, such as that of the Elucidarium, 
put into Welsh by an anchorite of Landewi Brefi in the year 
1346.1 The greatest poet of this period was Dafyd ab 
Gwilym, who may be regarded as a Welsh troubadour, 
whose lyric muse was devoted to singing what the French 
called the Ainoicr Courtois. The nature of that theme, and 
possibly other reasons which are not recorded, made 
Dafyd and the monks of his time sworn foes, a fact which 
cannot be construed wholly to the discredit of the monks 
and the clergy of the Middle Ages. 

With the Reformation began another period, characterised 
by the publication in the Welsh language of the Anglican 
Book of Common Prayer, the New Testament, and then 
the whole of the Bible. These were followed by various 
works, both original and translated, on theological and 
religious subjects. But the men engaged in the translation 
of Holy Writ complained of the low ebb at which they 
found their countrymen's knowledge of their language and 
its literature. Among others may be mentioned Richard 
Davies, Bishop of St. David's, who utters this complaint 
repeatedly in his " Letter to the Cymry," prefixed by William 
Salesbury, his friend and collaborator, to his New Testa- 
ment printed in London in the year 1567. The publication 
of the Scriptures in Welsh made little difference in this 
respect until, at any rate, an inexpensive edition had been 
a long time in print, namely, the five-shilling Bible issued 
in 1630, and recommended to the people with all the 
fervour of his eloquence by Vicar Prichard. The Vicar's 
own version of the teaching of the Bible and the Church, 
put into easy verse, and entitled Camuytt y Cymry — " The 
Candle of the Cymry " — was not completely published till 

' The whole manuscript, the property of Jesus College, has been edited by 
Jones and Rhys, and published in 1894 by the Clarendon Press in its quarto 
scries of " Anecdota Oxoniensia. "" 



5o6 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

1672, nearly thirty years after the author's death ; but it 
was destined to exercise great influence over his country- 
men. Nevertheless one finds the language reaching its 
lowest depth of neglect towards the close of the seventeenth 
century.^ 

The actual or current period of Welsh may conveniently 
be regarded as opening with the establishment of the 
Sunday School, which, originating in England, is regarded 
as introduced to Wales by the Rev. Thomas Charles, of 
Bala, about the year 1785.- Charles was educated at 
Jesus College, and ordained deacon in the Church of 
England in 1778. His career was somewhat like that of 
Wesley, and he became practically one of the principal 
founders of one of the most influential and powerful 
religious bodies in the Principality, the Calvinistic Metho- 
dists or Welsh Presbyterians. It was a time of religious 
revival in Wales, and the ground was prepared for 
Charles's labours by the earnestness and eloquence of the 
Rev. Daniel Rowlands, of Langeitho, and the genius 
of the Rev. William Williams, of Pant y Celyn, the 
chief of Welsh hymnologists ; not to mention other men 



' For valuable information on this and several other questions touched upon 
in this chapter, we gladly acknowledge our indebtedness to Mr. Ivor James's 
brochure, already mentioned : see more especially pp. 5-8, 18, 19, 22, 39. 

^ See a monograph by the Rev. D. Evans, M.A., of Barmouth, on "The 
Sunday Schools of Wales" (London, 1883), in which the date of Charles's 
Schools is clearly established. Some writers have endeavoured to prove the 
previous existence of Sunday Schools in Wales, e.g., " Morien " in a series of 
articles published in the Western Mail of June, 1880, and the late Dr. Rees, of 
Swansea, in his " History of Protestant Nonconformity in Wales," 1883, p. 394. 
The latter, however, admits that the schools which he mentions " were properly 
catechetical meetings, such as every nonconforniing church in that age held 
regularly every week," and not " Sunday Schools in the modern form." There 
is, however, scarcely any doubt that an occasional Sunday School had been 
established in Wales before 1785, the best authenticated instance, perhaps, 
being that conducted byjenkin Morgan on Sunday evenings from i770onwards 
at Crawlom, near I.anidloes ; but to Charles belongs the honour of having 
begun the type of schools which spread and lived in Wales. 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 507 

of lesser fame, but of hardly less influence over their 
countrymen in a generation which was passing away as 
Charles was attaining to the full enjoyment of his 
powers. As one of the events of his life may be regarded 
the publication of his Geiriadur Ysgrythyrol or Scripture 
Dictionary, in 181 1, and his Sunday Schools M^ere intended 
to be devoted to the reading and exposition of Scripture. 
Charles's schools (like those of Griffith Jones, of Lan- 
dowror) were in the first instance day-schools stationed 
for fixed periods at various centres, and their chief object 
was to teach people to read. These circulatory schools 
were conducted by men who regarded it as part of their 
duties to carry on evangelistic work in the districts where for 
their allotted time they remained as teachers. From their 
point of view, children and young people were taught to read, 
chiefly, that they might peruse the Scriptures themselves. 

As there were many unable to read who could not 
attend school on week-days, these teachers, supported 
by the influence of Thomas Charles, took the bold 
course of combining their eflbrts on Sundays, for the 
sake of such as could not attend on week-days ; and, to 
speak with more precision, this was the real origin of the 
Welsh Sunday School of Wales. The teachers would not 
have worked in this way withcut the religious motive 
which in their minds justified the new departure. Their 
labours in this new form met with strong resistance, and 
were extremely unpopular with the stricter portion of the 
congregations. But amid the fire of opposition the Sunday 
toil took more definite shape in the matter of Scripture 
reading and catechetical work, the more elementary task 
of teaching mere reading being confined to children. But 
there must have intervened a period when these efforts, 
mainly on the part of the teachers paid by the funds 
placed at the disposal of Charles, were sporadic. This 
was an interval of four or five years, between 1785 and 



5o8 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

1789. By the latter date Sunday Schools had become 
common, conducted by teachers and superhitendents from 
among the people themselves. Nevertheless, owing to the 
strong prejudice that had still to be encountered, the full 
tide of success did not come until about the year 1 807-8, 
when Thomas Charles started the large gatherings called 
CymanfaoeU Ysgolion, or School Associations. After this, 
opposition gradually died away and the institution found, 
on the whole, a fair course. Sunday Schools continue to 
be conducted on the same lines in Wales, and they retain 
the peculiarity that they are attended by men and women 
of all ages. Moreover, they form an institution recognised 
and encouraged by all Protestant denominations alike. 
Their importance from the point of view of Welsh and its 
literature consists in the fact that the Welsh are taught in 
these schools to read in their own tongue. The work done 
in them, it is true, extends further, namely, to the exposi- 
tion of the words of Scripture, the only text read in them ; 
but it does not come within the scope of that work to 
do anything directly to teach the people to write their 
language or to compose in it. So it happened that, before 
the Elementary Education Act of 1870 had been some 
years in force, it was a common thing for numbers of 
Welsh people of both sexes to be able to read Welsh in 
piint, but not in ordinary handwriting. 

The work of the Sunday School covers the whole extent 
to which the bulk of Welsh people are taught Welsh at all 
outside their hearths and homes ; for the public elementary 
schools have till lately been almost wholly devoted, so far 
as language is concerned, to the teaching of English, and 
the great majority of them contitme so, though the Code 
now recognises Welsh as an optional and special subjegt. 
Looking at the Sunday-school leaching of Welsh as a 
whole, one may say that the edifice is in a manner made 
complete by the role played by literary societies, and 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 509 

literary competitions in which prizes are given for 
singing, for writing Welsh, both prose and verse, and for 
translating from English into Welsh, and zn'cg versa. 
These competitions do not occur more than once a year 
even in the neighbourhoods where they are the rule ; and, 
speaking generally, they are sporadic and depend for their 
origination on individuals who feel interested in Welsh 
and Welsh music. They are altogether a very indefinite 
quantity, but literary societies have been of late becoming 
more general and somewhat more permanent. They all 
serve, however, as feeders to the Eistedfod, and they have 
in recent years exercised great influence on the cultivation 
of Welsh and Welsh literature. It is needless to remark 
that, so far as regards Welsh prose, the style of the 
authorised version of the Welsh Bible is the ideal of those 
who try to write and speak good Welsh. The fact that the 
Bible forms the earliest prose reading of the youth of Wales, 
and that they commit a great deal to memory under the 
direction of the Sunday School, makes that result unavoid- 
able ; and this is not to be deplored, as the style of the 
Welsh Bible is on the whole excellent. But this literary 
or standard Welsh is practically a dialect to itself, distinct 
from the colloquial language consisting of the dialects 
mentioned in the chapter on the ethnology — as distinct 
as standard English is from the dialects, let us say, of 
Somerset or Lancashire ; but it is familiar to the people 
from reading their Bible, and from listening to their best 
public speakers. In fact they would regard the colloquial 
placed in the position of the literary language as a viola- 
tion of their sense of dignity, though they might condone 
a certain margin of deviation from the literary style in the 
direction of the speaker's own dialect. It is somewhat the 
same as regards a country gentleman, let us say a landed 
proprietor or the squire, who learns Welsh in order to be 
able to converse with the men in his employ. Thus if 



510 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

he addresses them in Hterary Welsh, he commands their 
respect without appearing too affable or provoking 
familiarity, but if he learns his Welsh from a stable-boy, 
his st)'le of speaking provokes derision. For the Welsh 
have a keen sense of the dignity of speech, and what would 
strike them as most congruous under the circumstances 
would be a conversational style pitched perhaps between 
book Welsh and their own domestic colloquial. An educated 
man talking the latter would not be willingly listened to 
unless he happened to have a fascinating sense of humour : 
his language as such would not command a hearing. 

Unfortunately this position of supremacy of literary 
Welsh is now more and more contested by the shoddy 
Welsh which prevails in many of the newspapers published 
in Welsh. Possibly the tendency of journalism generally, 
with the hurry and scramble attendant on its periodicity, 
is in the direction of inaccuracy of language and a loose 
application of its terms. Perhaps the French, who take 
much trouble thoroughly to master their own language, 
are the nation most successful in resisting the tendency 
to this kind of degeneration. It exists undoubtedly in 
English, and it does in Welsh ; but that is not the whole of 
the evil in the case of Welsh, for it is found to be the 
readiest way to fill the blanks of a Welsh newspaper to 
translate from English ones. Now translation is never satis- 
factory from the point of view of the language into which 
it is made, unless it is by men who are competent and 
not too hard pressed for time. Neither of these is always 
one of the conditions under which English ideas appear 
in Welsh journals. Sometime? the translator is wofully 
restricted in the matter of vocabulary, but his most grievous 
sins are to be found in the foreign idioms which he intro- 
duces. To such a pitch is this sometimes carried, that to 
be sure of the meaning which he intends to convey one 
has to translate the individual words back into English, 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 511 

whereupon one discovers perchance the sense intended. 
Unfortunately for the unskilled or hurried translator the 
syntax of Welsh is very unlike that of English, especially 
in the matter, already mentioned, of the position of the 
verb and its nominative, and in that of manipulating the 
verbal noun. It is to be feared that crude and loose Welsh 
of the kind here in question may, by dint of familiarity, 
become general ; and the style of some of the younger 
speakers on Welsh platforms and in Welsh pulpits shows 
a tendency that way. The task of writing good and close 
Welsh is, it is true, of the same nature as that of writing 
Latin prose ; but short of the elegancies of such an 
exercise and the closeness of texture of such a production, 
it is possible to write without violating the elementary 
rules of the syntax. On the other hand, it is perhaps 
inevitable that, when a language which has been much 
devoted to religion and theology, to poetry and romance, 
becomes the vehicle of journalistic tattle, it should put on 
a looser dress, so to say, and undergo divers changes 
tending to make it altogether more free and easy. It is to 
be hoped that in the process of adapting itself more and 
more to the purposes of journalism, the language will issue 
from the trial with its syntax essentially intact. At all 
events the dialects, which are the force behind literary 
Welsh, are up to the present time sound as a rule in the 
matter of idiom, and can be relied upon as the spring of a 
power to check the deteriorating tendencies of translation, 
especially when the language is handled by skilled teachers, 
such as the professors of Welsh at the colleges of academic 
standing in the Principality. But it is impossible to conceal 
the fact that good writers of Welsh are scarce at the present 
moment, and hard to find. 

Such are the prospects of Welsh as they appear from 
the point of view of language and literature, and they are 
not wholly reassuring ; but a great deal may be expected 



512 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

from the present awakening of interest in all things Welsh. 
This now demands a word of notice before we proceed 
further ; and first of all we may say that it would take up 
too much of our space to inquire minutely into its origin. 
But we may trace it back to the efforts of a few patriotic 
Welshmen, with the late Sir Hugh Owen foremost among 
the number, to establish a university college in Wales, the 
realisation of their more immediate object in the college at 
Aberystwyth, and the publication in the year i88i of the 
report of Lord Aberdare's Departmental Committee on 
the state of Higher and Intermediate Education in Wales. 
Many other things have contributed to this result, and the 
tide has been steadily flowing. It has assumed the form 
of antagonism to the philistine wish to see all parts of the 
United Kingdom reduced to uniformity worked out on 
the level of the most characteristically Saxon parts of 
England. The more conservative idea has of late been 
gaining ground, that Wales and her people are more likely 
to contribute to the greatness of our Anglo-Celtic Empire 
by developing themselves on their own lines, so to say, 
and in their own way, rather than by slavishly aping the 
south of England. This view extends to the Welsh 
language and its literature ; and, among other proofs, we 
may mention that Welsh seems to be far more read and 
studied now than perhaps at any time in the past. But 
nothing is more remarkable than the change which has 
come over the old families of the Principality in their 
attitude towards the language. Not many years ago all 
care used to be taken that the children of the gentry 
should not be accustomed to Welsh, lest it should spoil 
their English accent for the rest of their lives, whereas now 
the fashion of having them taught Welsh is growing. This 
change, so far as it goes, makes for improved relations 
between their class and those dependent on it. 

Taking a comprehensive view of the history of Welsh 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 513 

and its literature from the close of the eleventh century 
down, one may say, perhaps, that the period when it 
flourished most vigorously consisted of the couple of 
centuries preceding the conquest by Edward I. Wales 
happened then to produce a number of very able princes, 
under whose rule and after whose example Welsh men of 
letters showed great activity, and Welsh bards especially 
distinguished themselves.^ At a later time, chiefly under 
the Tudors, Welshmen seemed to have been looked at 
with favour at court, as one may gather from Shakespeare's 
plays and Ben Jonson's masque, " The Honour of Wales ;" 
nor can the Welsh language have been altogether despised. 
But in time the well-known Act passed by Henry VIII. in 
1535, incorporating Wales with England, began to bear 
fruit in a way which threatened the Welsh language with 
certain extinction ; for before the close of the sixteenth 
century we find evidence of a desire on the part of many 
Welshmen to get rid of the language, which they regarded 
as a sign of subjection. This was the attitude, doubtless, 
of the bulk of the educated and well-to-do classes, and of 
some men who were thoughtfully anxious for the welfare of 
their nation. They held it to be the best thing for the 
Welsh to adopt English, and some of them did their utmost 
to help their countrymen in the acquisition of the latter 
language. Among others may be mentioned William 
Salesbury, who wrote and dedicated to Henry VIII, a 
Welsh and English dictionary, which he published with 
that object in view.- By the beginning of the seventeenth 
century few educated Welshmen could speak Welsh and 
few monoglot Welshmen could read it. The gentry with 

1 See Thomas Stephens's ' ' Literature of the Kymry during the Twelfth and 
two succeeding Centuries," pp. 332 — 342. 

- This was quite compatible with the zeal which impelled him afterwards to 

take a laborious part in the translation of the Scriptures into Welsh, as that 

might be made the indirect means of acquiring a knowledge of English in the 

way suggested by the following pjoviso, annexed to the original Act of 

W.P. L L 



514 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

few exceptions no longer maintained family bards,^ and 
the Eistedfod had been almost forgotten." 

Parliament passed in the fifth year of Elizabeth's reign, enjoining on the five 
Welsh Bishops — the Bishop of Hereford has the first place among them — the 
duty of seeing that the Act was carried out : — 

" Provided always and bee yt enacted by thaucthoritee aforesaid, That one 
Booke conteyning the Bible, and one other Book of Comon Prayer in 
ThenLjlishe Tongue, shallbee bought and had in every Churche throughout 
Wales, in w'^'' the Bible and Book of Comon Prayer in Welshe ys to bee hadd 
by force of this Acte (yf there bee none alreadye) before the first daye of 
Marche w'='' shallbee in the yere of our Lorde God XV c Ixvj ; and the same 
Bookes to remain in suche convenient Places w'^'in the said Churches ; that 
suche as understande them may resorte at all convenient limes to reade and 
puse the same, and also such as doo not understande the sayd Language maye, 
by conferring bothe Tongues together, the sooner attayne to the knowledge of the 
Englyshe Tongue ; Any thyng in this Acte to the contrarye notwithestanding. " 
See also pp. 39 and 47 of Southall's " Wales and her Language," a work 
from which we have derived much useful information. 

' Yet down to the close of the sixteenth century a knowledge of Welsh was 
m some cases considered almost indispensable for a country gentleman even 
in the border district around Montgomery, which is now among the most 
Anglicised parts of Wales. The first Lord Herbert of Cherbury (15S3 — 1648) 
in his " Autobiography " (ed. Sidney L. Lee, 1886, pp. 37 — 38) makes the 
following statement : — " After I had attained the age of nine, during all which 
time I lived in my said lady grandmother's house at Eyton [Shropshire], my 
parents thought fit to send me to some place where I might learn the Welsh 
tongue, as believing it necessary to enable me to treat with those of my friends 
and tenants who understood no other language ; whereupon I was recommended 
to Mr. Edward Thelwall, of Plas-y-ward in Denbighshire. ..." 

The practice of maintaining domestic harpers, which was once so prevalent 
among the Welsh gentry, survived in several instances till well on in the 
present century, and has in fact not wholly ceased even .'\t the present day, 
domestic harpers being still kept by the Dowager Duchess of Londonderry and 
the Marquis of Bute, while the late Lady Lanover (who died early in 1896) 
always maintained quite a group of harpers in connection with her house. In 
the last century the celebrated Blind Parry was domestic harper to the first and 
second Baronets of Wynnstay, and the post, subsequently filled by less 
distinguished harpers, was discontinued only about fifty years ago. In the 
present century Thomas Blayney is mentioned as harper to the second Earl of 
Powis, in "the thirties;" Wil Penmorfa held a similar post at Tregib, 
Landeilo, as late as 1823, if not later ; Thomas Lewelyn, of Aberdare 
(1828 — 1879), was harpist to the Aberpergwm and DyfTryn (Lord Aberdare's) 
families; while Griffith Owen, who died only in 1879, discharged for many 
years the double functions of butler and domestic harper to the late Mr. Edward 
Corbett, of Ynys y Maengwyn, near Towyn, Merioneth. 
■' See Mr. Ivor James's brochure, pp. 5 — 8, 18, iq, 39—41. 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 515 

The language, it need hardly be said, did not die out, 
but it was left uncultivated and uncared for, a condition of 
things which may be accurately characterised in the words 
of a humorous English traveller in the year 1682 : " Their 
native gibberish is usually pratled throughout the whole 
Taphydome, eyict'^t in their Market-Towns, whose inhabi- 
tants being a little rais'd, and (as it were) pufft up into 
bubbles above the ordinary scum, do begin to despise it. 
Some of these being elevated above the common level, and 
perhaps refin'd into the quality of having two suits, are 
apt to fancy themselves above their Tongue, and when in 
their t'other cloaths, are quite asham'd on't. 'Tis usually 
cashier'd out of Gentlemen's Houses, there being scarcely 
to be heard even one single Welch tone in many families ; 
their children are instructed in the Anglican Ideom, and 
their schools are P(zdagogiCd with professors of the same ; 
so that (if the stars prove lucky) there may be some 
glimmering hopes that the Brittish lingua may be quite 
extinct, and may be English' d out of Wales, as Latin was 
barbarously Gutlid out of Italy "^ The Great Rebellion 
was the turning point ; it left the strong castles in ruins, 
and the property of very many of the Welsh gentry passed 
into new hands, while others found their estates crippled to 
the last degree by heavy mortgages. From that crisis 
forth the prospects of the Welsh language began to 
improve ; they still continue to improve, and that, we are 
happy to say, without boding ill to the landed gentry of 

' See " Wallography," by W. R., p. 123. For calling our attention to that 
work we were indebted to the late Judge David Lewis, who contributed an 
interesting paper on "The Welshman of English Literature" to the "Cymm- 
rodor" for the yenr- 1882 : see pp. 238 — 240. The title of the book runs as 
follows : — " Wallography ; or the Britten described : Being a pleasant relation 
of a Journey into W^ales, wherein are set down several remarkable Passages that 
occur'd in the way thither. And also many choice Observables, and notable 
Commemorations, concerning the State and Condition, the Nature and 
Humor, Actions, Manners, Customs, &c., of that Countrey and People. By 
W, R., a mighty Lover of Welch Travels." 

L L 2 



516 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

the Principality or even failing to enlist their sympathies 
and good will. On the one hand we behold this going on 
before our eyes, while on the other we see that a day must 
come when English is the universal speech of the United 
Kingdom : we strike a balance of our feelings and venture . 
to predict that the future has yet in store for the Welsh 
language many long years of prosperity. 

We have alluded in passing to the Eistedfod, and we 
cannot close these remarks without some further notice of 
an institution so characteristic of the Welsh. It consists 
now of a meeting for competition in Welsh poetry and 
prose, and in music, both vocal and instrumental. One of 
the oldest assemblages of the kind of which we have any 
account is called z. gzvled or banquet, given in the year 1 176 
by Lord Rhys at his castle of Cardigan : notices of it a year 
in advance had been published, we are told, not only in 
Wales, but also in England, Scotland, and Ireland.^ We 
observe a difference between it and the Eistedfod of the 
present day in that not only the best poet was then awarded 
a chair, but also the best musician, whereas now the former 
alone gets a chair. In other respects the Cardigan banquet 
was like the modern Eistedfod, namely, in that the men, 
for example, of South Wales excelled in music, and those 
of Gwyned in poetry. The Eistedfod, the name of which 
means a sitting or session, appears to have been a regularly 
constituted court, bearing all the marks of antiquity. Its 
principal function was to license or admit duly qualified 
candidates to the position of recognised bards or minstrels ; 
and the legal position of the adjudicating bards or others 
assisting in the decisions of the court was that of experts or 
assessors to the sovereign, prince, or chief under whose 
authority the court was held. The business of the court 
must have been of a serious nature in proportion to the 
value of the privileges which it granted, and those privileges 

See Rhys and Evans's " Biuts from the Red Book of Ilngest," p. 334. 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 517 

included among them the right of the quaUfied professionals 
to make the circuit of the country, billeting themselves on 
the nobility and gentry in their turn. One of the Eistedfod 
proceedings which has most attraction for those who are 
interested in ancient ceremony is that of chairing the bard. 
It is referred to in one version of the Laws of Howel in the 
following clause : " From the person who shall conquer 
when there is a contention for a chair, he [the judge of the 
court] is to have a buglehorn and a gold ring, and the 
pillow placed under him in his chair." ^ One of the chief 
places of meeting for Eistedfod purposes in North Wales 
appears to have been the ancient town of Caerwys, in 
Flintshire ; there Gruffyd ab Cynan has been supposed to 
have held a great Eistedfod about the year 1 100. And in 
Tudor times we read of an Eistedfod taking place there in 
the fifteenth year of the reign of Henry VIII., at which 
Richard ap Howel ap leuan Vychan, of Mostyn, and 
Sir William Gruffyd, and Sir Roger Salusbury presided. 
They were assisted by a gentleman of learning and distinc- 
tion as a bard, named Gruffyd ap leuan ap Lewelyn 
Vychan," and by Tudur Aled, who is well known to have 
been one of the ablest bards of the time. The position of 
the " expert men " is still further defined by the wording 

• See Aneurin Owen's edition, i. 369. We abstain from saying anything 
about the " GorseS," as its antiquity is contested. See Cyiiirii for 1896, where 
the reader will find several articles on the subject by Professor J. Morris Jones, 
whom we have to thank for calling our attention to the passage concerning 
the chair contest. 

- We are indebted for this information to a note in Pennant's " Tours in 
Wales," vol. ii., p. 93, of the edition of 18 10. In the same volume also 
(pp. 89 — 93), is to be found at length Elizabeth's commission for holding the 
Eiste3fod of 1568, which we have, by the kind permission of Lord Mostyn, 
inserted in the text trom the original manuscript in his possession. As to the 
reputation of Gruffyd ap leuan ap Lewelyn Vychan see Salesbury's marginal 
note ((?>., i.) to the Bishop of St. David's Letter to the Cymry, already 
mentioned, also Williams's " Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen," p. 185. 
Salesbury took Gruffytt to have been uncle to his friend the Bishop, and 
there is no reason to suppose that he was mistaken. 



5i8 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

of Queen Elizabeth's commission for holding an Eistedfod 
at Caervvys in the year 1568. We print this important 
document at length, as it illustrates many other points in 
the history of the Eistedfod, and among them the position 
which the nobility and gentry of Gvvyned continued to 
occupy with regard to the language, literature, and music 
of Wales in the time of the Tudors : — 

" ELIZABETH by the grace of god of England ffraunce 
and Ireland Quene defendo' of the fayth &c. To our 
trustie and right welbeloued S' Richard Bulkley knight, 
S' Rees Gruffith knight, Ellice Price esquio', docto' in 
Cyvill Lavve, and one of our Counsaill in our mi-rrches of 
Wales William Mostyn, Jeua" Lloyd of Yale, John Salusbury 
of Ruge, Rees Thomrrs, Maurice Wynne, Will'" Lewis, Peres 
Mostyn, Owen John ap Ho" Vaughan, John Will"' ap John, 
John Lewis Owen, Moris Gruffyth, Symound Theloall, 
John Gruffyth, Ellice ap W'" Lloyd, Rob' Puleston, Harry 
aparry, William Glynne, and Rees Hughes esquio'", and 
to eu^ry of them, Greating. Wheras it is come to the 
knowledge of the Lorde President and other o' said Cun- 
saill in o' m'ches of Wales that vagraunt and idle persons, 
naming theim self^j- mynstrell^'j- Rithm'^s, and Barthes, are 
lately growen into such an intollerable multitude wz'th/n the 
principalitee of North Wales, that not only gentlemen and 
other by theire shameles disorders are oftentymes disquieted 
HI theire habitac/ons. But also thexpert mynstrelk^y and 
musicions in tonge and Coiiyng therby much discouraged 
to travail in thexercise and practize of theire knowledg^j' 
and also not a litle hyndred in theire L}'ving^j- and p;r- 
iQVvaenies. The refourmacon wherof and the putting of 
those people in ord' the said Lorde President and Counsaill 
have thought verey necessarye and knowing you to be 
men both of wysdome and vpright dealing and also of 
Experience and good Knowledg in the scyence, have 
apounted and aucthorized you to be Co;/i!mission'^s for 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 519 

that purpose. And forasmuch as o' said Counsaill of late 
travayling in some parte of the said principaHte had 
p(?rfect vnderstanding by credible report that thaccustomed 
place for thexecucon of the like Co;«missyon, hath bene 
heretofore at Cayroes in our Countie of fflynt, and that 
William Mostyn esquio' and his auncestcrs have had the 
gyfte and bestowing of the sylver harpe^ app^rtayning to 
the Chefif of that facultie, and that a yeares warning at the 
least hatli bene acustomed to be geaven of thassembly, 
and execucon of the like Co;//missyon. Our said Counsaill 
have therfore apoynted thexecucon of this Co;«missyon to 
be at the said towne of Cayroes the monday next aft" 
the feast of the blessed Trynitee w'^'' shallbe in the yeare 
of o' Lorde god 1568. 

"And therfore we require and co;«mand you by the 
aucthoritee of these p^'esentes not only to cause open pro- 
clamacons to be made in all ffayo'", m'ketts, Townes, and 
other plac^j of assembly wz'thm our Counties of Anglizey, 
Carn'von, Meryonneth, Denbigh and fflynt, that all and 
eu^;y person and persons that entend to maynteigne 
theire lyving^j by name or Colo'' of mynstrelkj", Rithm's, 
or Barthes, wz'thm the Talaith of Aberfrowe comprehending 
the said (yve Shires, shalbe and appeare before you the 
said daye and place to shewe furth theire learning^j accord- 
ingly. But also that you, xx'"'', xix''", xviii^", xvii*"", xvi''", 
XV™, xiiii^", xiii™, xii'', xi", x™, ix, viii, vii or vi of you, 
whereof youe S' Richard Bulkley, S' Rees Gruffith, Ellice 
Price, and W" Mostyn Esquio" or iii*"" or ii° of you to be 
of the nomber to repayre to the said place the daye afor- 
said, And calling to you such expert men in the said facultie 
of the Welshe musick as to you shall be thought con- 
venient to proceade to thexecucon of the premisses, and 

1 This silver harp is in the archives of Mostyn Hall, and was kindly 
exhibited to members of the Welsh Land Commission by Lord Mostyn on the 
occasion of their visit to Holywell and the vicinity. 



520 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

to admytt such and so many as by your wisdomes and 
Knowledges you shall fynde worthy into, and vnd"' the 
degrees, heretofore in semblable sort to vse exercise or 
folowe the scyenc^j and facultes of theire pr^jfessyons in such 
decent ord' as shall app^rtaigne to eche of theire degrees, 
and as yo' discrecons and wisdomes sliall prescribe vnto 
theim geaving straight monycon and co;//maundm^;^?t in o' 
name, and on o' behalf to the rest not worthy that they 
returne to some honest Labo' and due Exercise, such as they 
be most apte vnto for mayntenaunce of their lyving^j-, vpon 
paine to be taken as sturdy and idle vacaboundes and to 
be vsed according to the Lawes and Statutes pr<?vided in 
that behalf. Letting you wytt o' said Counsaill looke for 
advertisem£';/t by due c^'rtificatt at your handes of yo' doing^j- 
in thexecucon of the said premisses, forseeing in any wise 
that vpon the said assembly the peas and good order be 
observed and kept accordingly asscertayning you that the 
said Will"' Mostyn hath premised to see furnyture and 
thing^j- necessary provided for that assembly at the place 
aforsaid. Yeven vnder o' Signet at o"" Citie of Chester the 
xxiii"' of October the nynth yeare of o' Raigne. 

" Sz^n^d herhighnes Counsaill in the m'ches of Wales." 

The state of things complained of in Queen Elizabeth's 
commission was remedied, no doubt, for a time by the 
Eistedfod held at Caerwys in 1568 in obedience to it ; but 
the same unsatisfactory condition of the Welsh professional 
world, as far as concerned the bards and musicians, had 
again become prevalent by the year 1594. At any rate 
that is what one is led to believe from perusing a petition,^ 

' This is a document which Lord Mostyn only discovered in 1895, ^n"^' his 
Lordship was good enough to submit it at once to Professor Rhys, an act of 
courtesy for which we desire to record our hearty thanks. The petition may 
now be read at length in Mr. J. Gwenogvryn Evans's "Report [to the His- 
torical Manuscripts Commission] on Manuscripts in the Welsh Language," 
vol. !., pp. 293-5. 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 521 

signed then by a number of the gentry of North Wales, 
praying to have another Eistedfod held. We may mention 
in passing that according to this document the recognized 
prizes were by this time the silver chair for poetry, the 
silver harp for harping, the silver crowd for crowthing, and 
the silver tongue for singing. It does not appear that the 
petition was granted, and the Eistedfod is found to have 
now fallen on evil times, at any rate as far as regards 
North Wales. Without attempting, however, to trace its 
history down to the present day, suffice it to say that 
it had probably become uncertain and sporadic in its 
occurrence in the different parts of the Principality long 
before the sovereign, the prince, or nobleman under whose 
auspices it was held, had disappeared from the position of 
central figure, and given way to a more democratic order 
of things, with a president appointed as a matter of form. 
At length, about the middle of the present century, it 
struck some of the leading Welshmen of the time that the 
Eistedfod was to a considerable extent a neglected force 
which might be utilised for the benefit of Wales. So Sir 
Hugh Owen and his friends undertook the attempt to 
regulate it and to add to its meetings opportunities for 
discussing social and economic questions connected with 
the future of Wales. Their reforming work has proved 
lasting, and it is now carried on by the National Eistedfod 
Association under the auspices of the Honourable Society 
of the Cymmrodorion, which has its headquarters in 
London. One of the results is, that no more than one 
Eistedfod claiming to be national is held in each year, and 
that no year now passes without one such an Eistedfod 
being held, after an announcement a considerable time in 
advance. Regarding the work of the National Eistedfod 
in general, it may be said, that it continues to encourage 
Welsh literature, prose and verse, but that it has achieved 
its most striking successes in regard to music, while it has 



522 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

all but failed in the domain of art. Those, however, who 
expect the Eistedfod every now and then to turn out a 
Shakespeare or a Milton are wholly mistaken as to its 
nature. It is not a union of learned or famous men like 
the French Academy, or even like the British Association, 
but a thoroughly popular assembly representing the rank 
and file of the Welsh people. Nevertheless it has now and 
then helped to bring to notice young men who succeeded 
afterwards in distinguishing themselves in the honour 
examinations of the older universities and in their subse- 
quent careers. Besides the immediate work of the National 
P'istedfod, it is valued as a rallying point by Welshmen 
who live apart from one another, whether in Wales or 
other parts of the United Kingdom. During the Eistedfod 
week they make or renew their acquaintance with one 
another, and they form a sort of literary parliament for 
Wales, in which the steam of spent discussions may, so to 
say, be let off or new departures made. 

After all, perhaps the chief importance of this the 
National Eistedfod attaches to it, not as a structure com- 
plete in itself, but as a part of a larger and wider edifice. 
The National Eistedfod is, in a sense, the coping-stone of 
the provincial and smaller Eistedfods, and each of the 
latter depends for its success on how the ground has been 
previously worked by the smaller literary associations to 
which we have already alluded as in a sense following up 
the teaching of Welsh by the Sunday School. Considering 
the absence of any stimulus, economical or political, and 
the evident advantage of learning English, which the Welsh 
do not allow themselves to forget, the system we have 
sketched does them not a little credit. At all events, in 
the present state of hopeless division as regards religious 
views, it deserves to be encouraged by all who care for the 
welfare of the people. The Eistedfod — and we here mean 
the Eistedfod of all grades, from the national institution 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 523 

down to the competitive meeting of a local literary society 
— knows no politics or religious distinctions. Under the 
auspices of the Eistedfod men of the most divergent 
opinions may meet without fear of prejudice to the politics 
or dogmas of any. Its platform is the most neutral ground 
one has in the Principality, and if the landed proprietors 
had more generally been accustomed to take advantage, 
especially of the humbler Eistedfods and literary meetings, 
to assist and encourage the people in the development of 
their own ideas of culture, it would have gone a long way 
to meet the complaint that they keep themselves aloof and 
show little or no interest in the pursuits and ambitions of 
those around them. Economically speaking, the men of 
whom their dependants complain most loudly on the score 
of their alleged aloofness are frequently and readily 
admitted to be most generous as regards the material 
welfare of their people. They may be ever ready to give 
prizes for the best ploughing, and they may spend lavishly 
on the improvement of the breeds of horses or cattle 
on their estates, all excellent objects so far as they go. 
The Welsh character has a point of greater sensitive- 
ness than even the pocket ; but the landowner who 
has never taken part in a small Eistedfod or literary 
meeting among his people has in all probability never 
discovered it. 

These remarks do not apply, it is needless to say, to the 
larger and more ambitious Eistedfods, to preside at which, 
especially the National Eistedfod, has come to be regarded 
an honour not to be rashly rejected. It is, in fact, some- 
times whispered, that the position is a matter of some real 
competition and rivalry, though they mostly escape the 
observation of the public. Suspicion of this has given 
currency to a modern couplet, which, while wafting 
the echoes of an old Welsh hymn, gives expression to 
the sentiment that the voice of an English-speaking 



524 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

president at an Eistedfod is sometimes regarded as the 
bray of the silver trumpet : 

Lais £zvr o Sais mezvn 'Stedfod, 
Lais udgorn avian yw. 

But when the people of a Welsh countryside are making 
an effort on a smaller scale to develop their ideas of culture 
in their own Welsh way, any encouragement they receive 
is accepted with a deep sense of gratitude ; and to see the 
gentry among them on such occasions brings home to the 
hearts of all a conviction that their superiors in rank and 
education are not ashamed of them and their humble 
aspirations. The feelings of friendliness and attachment 
thus engendered could not fail to tend in manifold ways 
to smooth the dealings between the farmers and those 
dependent on them with the members of the land-owning 
class. 

Besides the Welsh language, English has long existed in 
the Principality partly as the official language of people 
who habitually talk Welsh, and partly as the only language 
used by certain of the inhabitants. As the official and 
business language English has prevailed to a large extent, 
especially wherever any kind of show had to be made ; for 
instance, when one enters a country churchyard one notices 
that epitaphs in Welsh only began to make their appearance 
in comparatively recent years. Indeed, when one considers 
how ubiquitous, so to say, English has been, and continues 
to be, in the Principality, it becomes a surprise that Welsh 
still exists, and exists in such comparative purity and 
vigour. The official language has depended on the 
intimate connection between England and Wales, but 
P^nglish as the vernacular of certain portions of the 
Principality has had its own history. Thus in the Anglo- 
Flemish districts of Pembrokeshire and Gower we have an 
EnGflish dialect which has been discussed in the first 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 525 

chapter, and we need not notice it any further. In the 
Vale of Glamorgan English and, to some extent, French 
must have been introduced over a considerable area, where 
Welsh was afterwards able to become the language of the 
hearth, not even excepting Cardiff and its immediate 
vicinity.^ Similarly, with regard to Tegeingl or the Flint- 
shire coast from the neighbourhood of Chester to the river 
Clwyd at Rhyl and Rhudlan, such names as Prestatyfi, 
Mostyn, Acstyn, Bychtyji, Brychtyn (Broughton), and the 
Point of Ayre, seem to show that English (and Scandi- 
navian) once prevailed there, where Welsh became again 
dominant. 

The spread of the language of the peasantry of one 
parish to those of another is not a change of a nature 
calculated quickly to attract the attention of the -historian, 
and the propagation of English as the vernacular of the 
inhabitants of the Marches of Wales is accordingly involved 
in obscurity. Certain indications remain of successive 
stages in the westward advance of the tide of English ; 
thus in English Maelor or the detached piece of Flintshire, 

^ A recently discovered "Directory and Guide to the Town and Castle of 
Cardiff," published in 1796, throws considerable light upon its linguistic 
condition {inter alia) just a hundred years ago. (See the Western Mail for 
27th December, 1895.) At that time the town was chiefly an agricultural 
centre for the surrounding district, and "great quantities of oats, barley, salt 
butter, and poultry of all kinds " were sent from it to Bristol. In the Directory 
Welsh names largely prevail : e.^., out of 127 traders 79 had Welsh names ; in 
the professions of law and physic four out of the five names were Welsh, 
though under gentry there were only three Welsh names out of nine. Mr. John 
Ballinger, who kindly made inquiries on behalf of the Welsh Land Com- 
mission among "the oldest inhabitants " of the town, informs us that he has 
come to the conclusion "that early in the present century Cardiff was a 
bilingual town, that English was freely used and understood by most of the 
inhabitants, but that a large amount of Welsh was spoken, particularly in the 
houses, and that, so far as Cardiff was a centre for markets and fairs, it was 
almost exclusively a Welsh centre." He also adds that there is an old Welsh 
proverb that the best English was spoken in Cardiff, Cowbridge, and Car- 
marthen, while a variant of the same saying substituted Crickhowell for 
Cowbridge. 



526 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

most of the field names are still Welsh, and as to Mon- 
mouthshire, which was treated as an English count)' from 
the passing of the " Act of Wales " in 1535, the dialect of 
the English portion is considered to be a more recently 
introduced language than that of the greater portion of 
Herefordshire or Shropshire ; in fact, the English of Mon- 
mouthshire has been pronounced ^ to be decidedly Welsh 
in tone and to some extent in vocabulary likewise. Then, 
with regard to Shropshire, the vernacular of the corner of 
that county between Chirk and Lanymyneich has been 
described by the same authority to be English spoken as 
a foreign language ; and at Oswestry, the largest town in 
the district, a good deal of Welsh may still be heard. 
More to the south in the same count}' and nearer to 
Radnorshire, we com,e, in the parish of Ciun, on a locality 
where the spoken English is said still to contain some 
Welsh vocables, such as the word for a //^, which is there 
called a mnchyii, pronounced with the guttural spirant as 
in Welsh." As for Herefordshire, Welsh appears not to be 
quite extinct there yet, and in the valley of the Wye it 
was spoken at Landogo, close on the border of Gloucester- 
shire, as late as the year 1830.^ 

Within the actual boundaries of Wales this quiet and 
unobserved invasion of English has covered most of 
Radnorshire, a portion of Brecknockshire, and a consider- 
able part of Montgomeryshire. It is the English spoken 
by the peasantry of the west of England and as learnt by 
the peasantry of the tract in question of Mid- Wales. It 
is not a particularly intellectual dialect, and, rightly or 
wrongly, the inhabitants of Welsh-speaking Wales do not 
regard the Welsh people who speak it as being among 

' By Mr. Alexander J. Ellis. See the •'Cymmrodor" for 1882, pp. 186-8. 

- See Miss Jackson's " Shropshire Word-book " (London, 1879). 

'^ See Southall's " Wales and her Language," especially the ninth chapter 
(pp. 336-56), where the author mentions various recent traces of Welsh in the 
Marches. 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 527 

the most intellectual or the most enlightened of their 
nationality. In fact, some of the religious communities of 
Wales, such as the Calvinistic Methodists, have been in 
the habit of sending missionaries to the districts (chiefly 
in Radnorshire) near Offa's Dyke, or, as they call them in 
Welsh, Gororau ClawdOffa. The probability is that during 
the transition from the one language to the other the 
people suffered intellectually : they were cut off from the 
movements, religious and other, which took place among 
those of their countrymen who continued to speak Welsh, 
at the same time that their change of language failed to 
bring them into anything like the atmosphere of English 
culture. Here we might, perhaps, cite as relevant the 
words of one of the commissioners who reported, in 1846, 
on education in Wales, when he wrote (p. 519) as follows : 
— "As the influence of the Welsh Sunday-school decreases, 
the moral degradation of the inhabitants is more apparent. 
This is observable on approaching the English border." 
And it is believed in Wales to be their condition still to 
some extent,^ but how far that may be really the case it 
would be hard to say. At all events, we mny mention, by 
way of comparison with the Anglo- Elemish part of Pem- 
brokeshire, that some of the tenant farmers of this area are 
among the most contented we have met in the course of 
our inquiry, especially those of Radnorshire. In other 
parts of Wales even the tenants who think most highly of 
their landlords usually join in the general chorus of their 
class that rents ought to be reduced, but, in one or two 
instances in Radnorshire, we met with the exceptional 
phenomenon of farmers who denied on their own behalf 
the cherishing of any such a wish." 

Whatever may have been the circumstances under which 
the Midland dialects of English invaded the borders of 

> See also Qu. 54,167-72; 54,187; 54,754-73; 54,929- ■ 
2 Qu. 53,007 ; 53,986 ; 54,137-44. 



528 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

Denbighshire and Flintshire, and the Southern dialect of 
English spread into Mid-Wales, no English dialect seems 
any longer to possess the secret of spreading itself in 
Wales. The linguistic boundaries in Pembrokeshire and 
Gower appear to have been fixed long ago, and the same 
remark applies, on the whole, to Mid-Wales. Welsh has 
nothing to fear, so to say, at the frontier, but rather from 
innumerable points within its own boundaries : from the 
towns as the centres of commercial life, from her pleasant 
watering-places crowded with English visitors, and from 
the public elementary schools in every parish in the land. 
In some of the towns the number of English people who 
have taken up their permanent abode in them is not incon- 
siderable ; but, excepting the English-dialect districts 
already mentioned, the bulk of the English spoken in 
Wales is book English in various stages of assimilation 
to English as spoken by the middle classes in the towns 
of the west and south of England. English visitors who 
happen to have no partiality for dialect often express their 
surprise at the purity of the language as spoken in Wales ; 
but that is a subject of no surprise to any one who knows 
the circumstances, for it is the language daily taught 
at school, 

Phonologically speaking, it is characterised in some 
parts of Wales by not allowing the voice to fall at tiic end 
of a proposition in the usual English way. With regard 
to individual sounds, it has some trouble in observing the 
distinction between the vowels of words like /lo/e and kai/, 
it vacillates between the two sounds of s, and it finds a 
difficulty with sh in such words as shilltug and Jis/i, which 
may still be heard pronounced silling and fiss in North 
Wales. Lastly, it trills the r in a way foreign to standard 
English ; but, on the other hand, it avoids the latest atrocity 
in English pronunciation, namely, the appending of r to 
words like idea and potato, and it never transgresses with 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 529 

regard to /i, except in Monmouthshire and Glamorgan, 
where /t is uncertain both in Welsh and English. In the 
case of Welshmen who have to learn English as a foreign 
tongue, there is a conscious effort to attain to the standard 
of English pronunciation. In other words, the Welsh 
accent is not a fixed quantity in the pronunciation of 
English under these conditions : it varies in point of 
intensity inversely with the length and success of the 
teaching. This applies especially to the country districts, 
whereas in the towns it tends to become fixed, the most 
decided instances being the largest towns, Cardiff, Swansea, 
and Newport. 

The code regulating public elementary schools now 
allows Welsh to be taught as a special subject, but it is 
still doubtful whether Welsh will be very generally taken 
up, such is the anxiety of Welsh parents to have their 
children taught English, and such is the reliance which they 
place in the Sunday School as the means of teaching the 
mother tongue. As a rule, however, the children in the 
country districts leave school before they have so far 
mastered English as to be able to make a free and com- 
fortable use of it in conversation. Only a very small 
minority of them become really bilingual, as proved by 
their habitual use of Welsh for all purposes, domestic, 
social, and religious. At most they retain perhaps enough 
of the English learnt at school to be able to answer simple 
questions addressed to them in very plain terms. That 
they should shrink from giving evidence in English in 
courts of law is perfectly natural, as any Englishman 
possessed of a moderate acquaintance with French would 
at once comprehend, if he were called upon to undergo 
a cross-examination in that language in a court of law. 

We have hitherto dealt with the quality, so to speak, 
rather than the quantity of Welsh literature, but, before 
we quit the consideration of this subject, we may, perhaps, 

W.P. M M 



530 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

attempt a brief statistical analysis of Welsh bibliography 
during the last four centuries. 

The art of printing was probably not introduced into 
England before about 1477, though a {evj English books 
had been printed on the Continent prior to that date. It 
was not, however, before 1546 that the first book written 
in the Welsh language was printed, and it is a significant 
fact that this contained a translation of certain portions 
of the Bible. For the next hundred years the number of 
Welsh books was comparatively small. Thus the total 
number of books by Welshmen, or about Wales, published 
between 1546 and 1642, was 269, of which 44 were in 
Latin, 184 in English, and only 41 in Welsh. Of the 
Welsh books, four only were of an exclusively literary 
character, while the remaining 37 were purely religious, 
including three editions of the Bible, one of the New 
Testament, two selections from Scriptures, four Psalters, 
one Litany, five Liturgies, one book of Homilies, together 
with 13 religious works by Protestants, and five by Roman 
Catholics.^ 

In the next period, that of the Civil War, extending 
from 1643 to 1660, there is a most marked difference 
between the character of the productions of the Welsh and 
English presses respectively. Thomasson's famous collec- 
tion of political tracts, which contains almost every knov.'n 
specimen of the ephemeral and controversial literature of 
the period, numbers over thirty thousand, all in English, 
but intended, however, for distribution in Wales as well as 
in England. As against this, we do not find that a single 
pamphlet or other publication of an exclusively political 
character was issued in the Welsh language, those that 
approach nearest to this definition being two works, which 
' This estimate is taken from Mr. Ivor James's brochure (pp. 20, 21, 39), 
which has been already repeatedly mentioned. The figures for 1643-1800 
are based upon the entries in Rowlands's " Cambrian Bibliography,'' edited 
by the Rev. U. Silvan Evans (Lanidloes, 1869). 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 531 

are " strange mixtures of politics and religious mysticism," 
written by a North Wales Puritan, Morgan Lwyd, of 
Wrexham. The total number of books published in the 
Welsh language in this troublous period appear to be 
2)6, as compared with 166 in English (mostly pamphlets, 
however), and four in Latin. It was after the conclusion 
of the Civil War that perhaps the first great opportunity 
of the Welsh language occurred, and we consequently find 
that in the next sixty years, from 1660 to 1720, the Welsh 
books numbered 247, as compared with four Latin books 
and 137 English works by Welshmen or about Wales. 

It was not till the last year of the period, namely, 17 19, 
that a book was first printed, or, in other words, that a 
printing-press was established, within the limits of the 
Principahty itself. Almost all the earliest Welsh books 
had been printed in London, excepting a small number 
printed on the Continent, especially at Milan and Paris, 
though other works by Welsh authors had also been printed 
at Cologne, Amsterdam, and Heidelberg. 

After London we find that Oxford and Shrewsbury, and 
still later Bristol and Chester, came to supply the Welsh 
book market during the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries. In the days of packhorses Shrewsbury enjoyed 
a geographical position of great advantage for all pur- 
poses of communication between Wales and England, and 
there is a long roll of Shrewsbury printers whose names 
are most closely associated with the Welsh literature of 
that period. It is now generally conceded that the first 
Welsh press was set up by one Isaac Carter, in 17 19, at 
Adpar, a suburb of Newcastle Emlyn, on the Cardiganshire 
side of the river Teify.^ Carter eventually removed to 

' See the Rev. D. Silvan Evans's statement in Rowlands's "Cambrian 
Bibliography," p. 321, and two interesting articles (in Welsh) on "Old 
Welsh Printers" ("Hen Argraffwyr ILyfrau Cymraeg"') by Charles Ashton in 
Y Geninen for October, 1891, and January, 1892, where a list is given of all the 
printers of Welsh books prior to the present century, and references are also 

M M 2 



532 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

Carmarthen, which was then the chief town of South 
Wales, and soon became the main centre of the Welsh 
book trade,^ at least for South Wales, a position which 
it has, on the whole, held to the present day. 

During the latter half of the last century, the great 
revival which manifested itself, not only in the religious, 
but also in the literary, life of the Welsh people, resulted in 
a considerable increase in the number of Welsh books, an 
increase which has been steadily maintained from 1740 
even to the present day. 

The estimated numbers of Welsh books issued within each 
period of twenty years subsequent to the Civil War are 
exhibited in two tables, which we here append. The first 
comes down to (and includes) the year iSoo, and is based 
on Rowlands's " Bibliography"; for the second, which covers 
the period from 1801 to 1895, both inclusive, we are indebted 
to Mr. Charles Ashton, of Dinas Mawdwy, who for the last 
ten years has been collecting materials for a Welsh biblio- 
graphy of the nineteenth century, and who has kindly 
favoured us with the result of his researches up to the 
year 1896." 

given to the chief authorities on the subject of Welsh bibliography. A brief 
general summary of the question is also given in a paper by Mr. W. Eilir 
Evans on "Welsh Publishing and Bookselling," read before the Library 
Association at Cardiff (September, 1895) and published in the Library for 
December, 1895 (^''- 39-' ec seq.). 

1 John Ross (a Scotchman), who, after a London apprenticeship, settled at 
Carmarthen in 1743, and acquired a knowledge of the Welsh language, very 
largely contributed to this result. He used to describe himself as "the only 
printer in those parts brought up to the trade." 

- Mr. Ashton has also sent us the following explanation of his list : — 
"Between Welsh books, etc., and those in some way or other relating to 
Wales, I have already recorded a total of 11,613. All these are different 
publications. .Some of them are very small in size ; indeed, hundreds of them 
contain only about four pages each. Many of them are periodicals, tracts, and 
leaflets. l!ut a book of any number of volumes, such as ' Y Gwydoniadur,' 
or 'Welsh Cyclopedia,' or a monthly periodical (such as Yr Eitrgrawn 
fVes/eyaitf, which has had a continuous existence since 1809), is only counted 
as ONE, ant! entered under the year it first appeared, but a second or any 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. , 533 
Welsh Books, [546 — 1800. 





1545 


1643 


1661 


1681 


1 701 


1721 


1741 


1761 


I78I 




to 


to 


to 


to 


to 


to 


to 


to 


to 




1642. 


1 660. 


1680. 


1700. 


1720. 


1740. 


1760. 


1780. 


1800. 


Welsh . 


41 


36 


35 


74 


138 


"5 


177 


423 


440 


English 


184 


166 


48 


35 


54 


55 


80 


91 


155 


Latin and other 




















languages . 


44 


4 


I 


2 


2 


4 


4 


— 


I 


Total . 


269 


206 


84 


III 


194 


174 


261 


514 


596 



Welsh Books, 1801—95. 





I 801 to 
1820. 


1821 to 
1840. 


1841 to 

i860. 


i86i to 
1880. 


1881 to 

1895. 


Total 

1801 to 

1895. 


Welsh 
English, etc. 


890 
415 


1,670 
500 


2,065 
550 


2,195 

995 


1,605 

728 


8,425 
3,188 


Total . 


1,305 


2,170 


2,615 


3>i9o 


2,433 


11,613 



The earliest of the Welsh periodicals made its appear- 
ance in 1770, as a fortnightly publication, bearing the title 
of Trysorfa Givybodaeth iieii, Eurgrawii Cymraeg. After 

subsequent edition of the same work is separately counted. The column 
'English, etc.,' includes a few historical books, written in Latin, and a small 
number of French and German books which relate to Wales, but the total is 
largely made up of Acts of Parliament relating to enclosures, canals, highways, 
railways, etc., in Wales, while there is also a good number of books recorded 
which treat of different districts in Wales — topographical works, guide-books, 
and some historical books of considerable size and much value. I have every 
reason to believe that there are still many books, in Welsh and relaiing to 
Wales, published in this country which I have so far been unable to recod. 
I know practically nothing of the Welsh literature published in America, with 
the exception of an occasional book which has found its way over here." 



534 ' THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

the issue of fifteen numbers it was discontinued. It was 
succeeded by the CylcJigrazvn Cymraeg, a quarterly, of 
which only five numbers appeared, between February, 1793, 
and February, 1794. Several other periodicals were started 
and had a short existence in the early years of this cen- 
tury, but Yr Eiirgraivn Wesleyaid, a denominational 
magazine, established in connection with the Wesleyan 
body in 1809, has continued to appear uninterruptedly 
to the present day. 

In the year 1828, " the monthly press of Wales issued no 
fewer than fourteen periodicals, and what is an anomaly 
in the history of literature, to the pages of these the 
peasantry were almost the only contributors," ^ a state- 
ment which is very largely applicable to the periodicals 
even of the present day. 

Up to 1850 there had been started from time to time as 
many as — 

{a) Fifteen Welsh quarterlies, of which only one, 
Y TraetJiody^, which is an undenominational 
review, is still in existence, being now issued as a 
bi-monthly. 
{b) Two bi-monthlies, both of which have died, 
(c) About one hundred monthly magazines, of which 
ten are still in existence, all of them being pub- 
lished in connection with the various religious 
denominations. 
{d) Eleven fortnightly and four weekly publications, of 
which only one has survived, that is Yr Amseraii, 
started in 1843, and incorporated in 1859 with 
Bauer Cymrn, and now appearing under the title 
Bauer ac A mserau Cyuiru. 
In the year 1896 there were publishing in the Welsh 
language two quarterlies, two bi-monthlies, twenty-eight 

^ Speech by the Rev. John Blackwell at the Denbigh Eisteitfod in 1828 
(quoted in Rowlands's " Bibliography," p. 8). 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. . 535 

monthlies, and twenty-five weeklies, making a total of 
thirty-two magazines and twenty-five newspapers. Except- 
ing one Welsh newspaper, published in Liverpool, all of 
them were published within the Principality, the chief 
publishing centres for North Wales being in the counties 
of Carnarvon, Merioneth, and Denbigh, and for South Wales 
in those of Glamorgan and Carmarthen. Of English news- 
papers published in Wales, eleven were dailies, which were 
issued from Cardiff, Swansea, and Newport, and seventy- 
nine were weeklies (about one-fourth of which have a Welsh 
column or two), not to mention half a dozen more, that were 
published in the border counties, and circulated largely in 
Wales. Besides these there were at least twelve magazines 
periodically issued in the service of Wales or of Welsh 
literature, being for the most part the transactions of learned 
societies.^ 

We cannot pass on from this subject without stating 
that the Welsh Land Commission experienced very great 
difficulty in obtaining definite information with reference 
to Welsh publications generally. This was especially the 
case with their endeavour to have a bibliographical list 
compiled of all books relating to agriculture or land 
tenure in Wales, with the view of illustrating the history 
of the development of those subjects. On this subject the 
Commissioners speak as follows in their Report, p. 92 : — 
"Out of a total of over four hundred books (exclusive of 
our supplemental lists) which are entered in our biblio- 
graphy, not more than about one half of that number are 
to be found in the British Museum. During the course of 
our general inquiry in Wales, we were repeatedly assured 
that no translation into Welsh of the Agricultural Holdings 

^ Further information as to the history of the periodical literature of Wales 
is printed in Appendix C to the Report of the Welsh Land Commission, 
which, in addition to other particulars, contains a list of all the periodicals 
(both Welsh and English) issued in Wales or in connection therewith in the 
year 1895. 



536 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

Act, 1883, had ever been published. We subsequently 
discovered an edition brought out by a Welsh barrister ; 
but we very much question whether a copy of it is to be 
found in any public library, either in or out of Wales, and 
we fear that, owing to the circumstances which govern 
Welsh bookselling, it is unknown to the farming community 
outside the immediate district in which it was published. 
The explanation for all this seems to be that there is in 
Wales no central emporium where Welsh publications can 
be procured." According to a recent critic,^ "every Welsh 
publisher plays for his own hand, and no more. No 
general Welsh catalogue is ever published, and scores, 
nay, we could say hundreds, of Welsh books never find 
their way to the British Museum." Private enterprise 
and a more enlightened policy on the part of Welsh 
publishers might do much to remedy this unsatisfactory 
state of things, but in the matter of collecting and pre- 
serving the varied and numerous productions of the Welsh 
press a national library and museum in Wales might 
effect what the British Museum in London is at present, 
through no fault of its own, wholly incapable of doing. The 
establishment of such an institution, and its endowment 
by the State, has been recommended from time to time,- 

' Mr. Eilir Evans, in the article already nitriitioned. In the course of the 
discussion which followed the reading of his paper, it was suggested that the 
county councils of Wales might register the existing printers and obtain 
complete lists of the works issued by them. 

-£•£., by Rowlands, in the preface to his " Cambrian Bibliography" 
(p. xxii.) ; by various speakers at the National Eistedfod (Lango'ten) of 1858 
(see Cambrian Journal, 2nd ser., i., p. 297); by J. E. Southall, in "Wales 
and her Language " (1892), pp. 308-9 ; by Mr. D Brynmor-Jones, in an 
address delivered before the Cymmrodorion section at the National Eisttdfod 
held at Pontypridd in 1893 (see " Thirteenth Annual Report of the National 
Eistedfod Association ") ; and by Mr. Romilly Allen, in Archceologia Cambrensis 
for July, 1896. Several societies, having their headquarters at Cardiff, also 
promoted a scheme for celebrating Her Majesty's Jubilee in 1887 by 
establishing in that town a national institute for Wales, but the project was 
not realised. 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 537 

and has recently been urged on more than one occasion 
in Parliament.'' 

Their experience led the Commission to the conclusion 
that such an institution is not only desirable, but most 
essential for the preservation of the scattered productions 
of the unorganised publishing trade of Wales. For the 
historian no tract or broadsheet, ballad or penny almanac, 
is without its value. They all contribute to make up the 
record of a nation's life, they are all expressions of local 
thought, and without them the mosaic of a country's past 
cannot be pieced together. 

But there are many objects, other than printed works, 
that should find a receptacle in such an institution : 
drawings of implements and articles illustrating the 
industries of Wales and collections of the fauna and flora 
of the country. Nothing could throw such a light upon 
the development of agriculture in Wales as a series of 
drawings illustrative of the implements in use among Welsh 
farmers at the end of the last century. It is well-nigh 
impossible now to trace the local varieties in the form of 
the rake, the shovel, and the sickle, and it is difficult to 
ascertain with certainty what manner of implement the 

' The National Institutions (Wales) Bill (No. 411), 1891, which was backed 
by Mr. Alfred Thomas and nine other Welsh members of Parliament, 
contained a clause [21(5)] which empowered ihe National Council " to 
establish a national museum for Wales, to apply for a charter of incorpora- 
tion of the same, and to apply to Parliament for an Act to enable the 
trustees of the British Museum to give to such museum for Wales any books, 
manuscripts, works, objects, or specimens which, in the opinion of the said 
trustees, especially concern Wales or the Cymric race." The Established 
Church (Wales) Bill (No. 144), 1895, also provided that the objects (specified 
in the first schedule) to which the residue of the Church property were to be 
applied should include " technical and higher education, including the establish- 
ment and maintenance of a library, museum, or academy of art for Wales." 
1'he question has also been raised on other occasions, e.g., on 20th August, 
1894 (see Hansard, 4th ser., vol. 29, pp. 29 e( seq.), on 28th August, 1895 
(Hansard, 4th ser., vol. 36, pp. 1044 and 1048), and on 21st February and 
loth July, 1896. 



538 THE WELSH PEOPLE, ^chap. xii.) 

old Welsh plough was, or the fan, made of frame-wood and 
canvas and turned by hand, for winnowing purposes. The 
introduction of manufactured articles, in place of those 
formerly produced by domestic industry in every farm- 
house and cottage during the long winter evenings, will 
soon drive out all recollection of the Welsh peasant's skill 
in wood carving and other kindred handicraft, both of 
profit and recreation, while a few spinning wheels are 
almost all that survive to testify to the industry of his wife 
and daughters in converting the fleeces of his flock into all 
manner of woollen goods. 

Apart, however, from what may be regarded as the duty 
of the State with reference to the collection and the pre- 
servation of such specimens and objects as have been 
indicated, whether literary, artistic, or industrial, the Com- 
mission was also greatly impressed with the inadequacy of 
the present means for bringing to the knowledge of the 
Welsh-speaking rural population the provisions of Acts of 
Parliament passed for their especial benefit, and the work 
done by the various Government departments with the 
direct object of improving their condition or of facilitating 
them in the pursuit of agriculture. Owing to this want 
of adequate information, the result has been that Welsh 
farmers have not been able to avail themselves, to the 
extent that Parliament has intended, of those ameliorative 
provisions which have of recent years altered in a consider- 
able degree the relationship of landlord and tenant. The 
most prevalent instance under this head was the ignorance, 
well-nigh universal in some districts, as to the provisions of 
the Agricultural Holdings Act and the Ground Game Act. 
Almost all the tenant farmers in the Welsh-speaking 
districts believed that these Acts, especially the former, 
could be totally excluded by means of a contracting-out 
clause. Many appeared to be quite unaware that the Act 
of 1875 had been amended by the subsequent statute of 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 539 

1883. Even where there was a knowledge of the existence 
of the latter Act, its provisions, especially as to procedure, 
were accurately known only to a few, and consequently 
in most districts the Act was for all practical purposes a 
dead letter. 

To take another example, only very few of the witnesses 
examined by the Welsh Land Commission appeared to 
possess copies of the "Official Analysis of Railway 
Rates," ^ published by the Board of Trade, though it is 
of great importance that farmers should be able to ascer- 
tain the legal charges for the conveyance of agricultural 
produce, feeding stuffs, artificial manures, and the like 
commodities. 

In view of these facts, it was more than once suggested 
to the Commission that it would be of great advantage if 
in rural districts the service of the Post-office were utilised 
for the sale and distribution of Acts of Parliament and 
Government publications. If, for instance, a farmer could 
procure a copy, say, of the Agricultural Holdings Act by 
merely giving a verbal order for it to the local postmaster 
in his own district, or even to the rural postman, and 
prepaying for it its published price, with a fractional 
charge, if necessary, to cover its transmission,^ we believe 
that such Acts would so penetrate to places which they 
never reach at present, and that there would result there- 
from a more enlightened understanding of the civic rights 
and duties of those concerned in the occupation and 
cultivation of the soil. 



^ Parliamentary Paper C. — 6,832 of 1893, price is. 

- See, for example, Qu. 3142 — 3. We understand that in some foreign 
countries a system of this kind is in vogue for the sale and distribution of news- 
papers. According to the 77;«,?5 (5th December, 1894, p. 13), "it is possible 
in Egypt, for example, to order at any post-office any newspaper from any 
country in the world. The subscription to the newspaper, plus a small 
commission, is paid down in the local post-office, and the Egyptian Postmaster- 
General sees the rest of the business through." 



540 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

Short, however, of estabHshini^ a system of this kinel in 
connection with the Post-ofifice, it would probably facili- 
tate, to some extent, the sale of official publications, if a 
special depot for that purpose were established in the 
Principality by means of commissioning some Welsh book- 
seller, or other person able to carry on correspondence in 
Welsh, to be the duly constituted representative of Her 
Majesty's Stationery Office in that respect. It may be 
pointed out that there are already such accredited agents 
in Edinburgh and Glasgow for Scotland, and in Dublin 
for Ireland, in addition to Messrs. Eyre & Spottiswoode 
in London ; and that the names of these respective 
firms are imprinted on every Parliamentary paper issued. 

But it is not the mere system, or want of system, in the 
distribution of these publications that is alone defective 
at present ; the language in which they are couched is a 
much greater obstacle to their being read and understood 
by the Welsh-speaking population of Wales. The diffi- 
culty we refer to here is that which arises from the Welsh 
farmers' ignorance of English, rather than from the 
technical phraseology which, even in England, frequently 
renders Acts of Parliament far from being easily intelligible 
to the less educated classes. Technicalit}' of language by 
itself is, however, so serious an obstacle to the general 
understanding and interpretation of official documents 
that it has been deemed expedient by the State to publish 
abstracts of such statutes as the Mines Regulations Acts 
and the Factory and Workshop Acts, with the view of 
more effectively bringing home to the persons carrying on, 
or employed in those industries, the conditions and regu- 
lations imposed on them by Parliament. In tlie particular 
instances mentioned, Welsh translations of such abstracts 
have been officially prepared and published by the Home 
Office, for exhibition in the precincts of mines and factories. 
The General Register Office, as early as 1837, had two 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 541 

of its official papers issued in Welsh, and since then a 
vaccination notice and the form of instructions for filling 
in the census schedules have also been translated by that 
department. Several other departments have also, from 
time to time, recognised the desirability of translating their 
notices, etc., into Welsh, notably the Local Government 
Board, which has so issued several Acts of Parliament and 
administrative orders, and these translations, now that 
they are becoming better known in the Principality, are, 
it is said, greatly appreciated by the Welsh-speaking 
population.^ 

Several witnesses- suggested to the Commission that 
Acts of Parliament directly affecting the rural districts 
should be translated into Welsh, while Sir Joseph R. 
Bailey, in objecting to such a course, recommended as an 
alternative that " there should be published in Welsh a 
short epitome of such parts of Acts of Parliament as 
concerned Welsh interests, cutting out what are called 
words of skill, and making the Acts of Parliament a resume 
so simple that in fact persons not well educated could 
understand them."^ 

This was the view also taken by Mr. W. O. Brigstocke, 
formerly chairman of the Carmarthenshire County Council,* 
who observed that in the case of the Irish Land Act 
there are very concise and plain summaries published, 
and he thought that if a summary were published in 
Welsh it would be better than a complete translation, 
owing to the difficulty of turning English legal phrases into 
Welsh. 

But not one Act that directly affects the agricultural 

1 A li.sl of all the Parliamentary papers and State documents that have thus 
been officially translated into the Welsh language is given in Appendix A. to 
the Report. 

^ Such as Mr. O. Slaney Wynne, at Qu. 8,326 ; compare also Qu. 14,561, 
23,224, 48,152. 

» Qu. 49.786. * Qu. 43.432. 



542 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

community as such — from the Ground Game Act and the 
Agricultural Holdings Acts to the Allotments Acts and the 
Fertilizers and Feeding Stuffs Act — has been ofificially 
translated into Welsh, either in its entirety or in the form 
of a popular summary. Nor does it appear that an official 
translation has at any time been issued of a single leaflet 
out of the very considerable literature published by the 
Board of Agriculture in the service of the agricultural 
interests of this country. The practical suggestions, the 
timely advice or warning, and the valuable information 
about the agricultural methods of other countries which 
are contained in the publications of the Board, reach and 
influence but an infinitesimal fraction of Welsh agricul- 
turists, owing to the fact that no translations of these 
leaflets and other publications are ever issued. The evil 
is to some extent aggravated by the further fact that few, 
if any, of the inspectors of the Board who travel in Wales 
possess any knowledge of the Welsh language.^ This non- 
utilisation of Welsh as a medium for reaching the culti- 
vators of the soil is all the more regrettable inasmuch as 
there is no exclusively agricultural newspaper or magazine 
issued in the Welsh language, and consequently the 
ordinary Welsh farmer, whose reading is confined to his 
own language, is not able to inform himself as to points 
concerning which his English brother receives gratuitous 
advicq from the State. 

To remedy this inequality, and to enable the farmers of 
Wales to reap the full benefit of the valuable literature 
issued by the Board of Agriculture, it seems to us highly 
desirable that in future Welsh translations should be issued 
of all the Board's leaflets, except such as contain matter 
wholly inapplicable to the conditions of agriculture in 
Wales. A paper dealing with hops, for example, need 

' On this point sec Hansard's "Parliamentary Debates," 4th ser., vol. 36, 
pp. 739-742- 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 543 

not, perhaps, be translated, as Wales is not a hop-growing 
country — unless, of course, it were decided to suggest the 
promotion of that industry in the Principality. In certain 
circumstances the peculiar conditions of Welsh agriculture 
might also render it necessary to prepare special leaflets 
for distribution in Wales alone, or even in the Welsh- 
speaking districts only. A Welsh edition of the " Journal 
of the Board of Agriculture" should also be published, 
but it would not, perhaps, be desirable that it should be 
entirely a translation of the English edition. Some of 
the English articles might, with advantage, be replaced 
by original articles in Welsh having special application to 
Welsh agriculture. An example in the nature of a prece- 
dent is to be found in Cape Colony, where the Colonial 
Government publishes an agricultural journal in English 
and in Dutch for the use of the respective races in 
that Colony. Owing to the more backward condition of 
agriculture in Wales as compared with England — taking 
the country generally, and also owing to the remoter 
situation of the country and the greater inaccessibility 
of portions of it, stronger efforts than are necessary 
in England should be made to enable the Welsh farmer 
to become thoroughly acquainted with the latest improve- 
ments and the most modern methods, unless his lot in 
the future is to continue, as in the past, much behind that 
of the ordinary English farmer. 

The census returns for 1891 furnish for the first time 
a record of the number of persons speaking Welsh only, 
English only, or both English and Welsh within the con- 
fines of the Principality. The accuracy of these returns 
has been questioned by two different parties, one com- 
plaining that the number returned as speaking Welsh only 
is too large, the other that the number of those stated as 
speaking English 07i/j/ is too large. Thus, on the one 
hand, the compilers of the census, in their general report, 



544 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

state that abundant evidence was received showinj:^ that 
the instructions appended to the householder's schedule 
" was either misunderstood or set at naught by a large 
number of those Welshmen who could speak both 
languages, and that the word ' Welsh ' was very often 
returned, when the proper entry would have been 'Both' ; 
on the ground, it may be presumed, that Welsh was the 
language spoken habitually or preferentially." It appears, 
however, that at the time of the taking of the census it 
was generally understood that no mere smattering of either 
language was to count, and that consequently most people 
a.ssumed that the real test as to the column under which 
they should be returned was whether they could give 
evidence in a court of law in the language specified at 
the top of that column. This, it has been pointed out, 
would cut both ways inasmuch as many who possessed only 
a smattering of the Welsh language would naturally return 
themselves as speaking English only, instead of returning 
themselves in the bilingual column. The same would also 
be the case with Welsh people possessing only a smattering 
of English. There is thus the possibility that not only the 
Welsh, but also the English column was, for some districts, 
perhaps, unduly large at the expense of the bilingual one. 
It was also suggested that in many cases census schedules 
without the language column were through some error or 
other not distributed in every district,^ so that the result 
would presumably be that those persons (whether Welsh or 
English speaking), who were furnished with such schedules, 

• "From various parts of the country there were complaints that papers 
were sent round to householders which contained no columns for entering the 
language spoken ; the Registrar- General does not inform us as to the way in 
which such papers were dealt with, whether they were treated as English only, 
or entered under 'No statement'": see Southall on "The Welsh Language 
Census of 1S91,'" p. 7. See also the report of discussions of this question in the 
House of Commons (August, 1894), in Hansard's " Parliamentary Debates," 
4lh ser. , vol. 29, pp. 33 etseq., 179 and 321 et se(^. 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 545 

were ultimately entered as English only. The opinion 
expressed by the census authorities in their report, how- 
ever, is that " the number of monoglot Welsh persons is 
considerably overstated, and the number of persons who 
can speak both languages correspondingly understated." 
Most of those who have subsequently made a study of 
these returns seem, however, to favour the opinion that 
the returns are substantially correct, and that the doubts 
raised by the Registrar-General as to the bona fides of some 
of the returns were capable of only a very limited applica- 
tion. Having thus stated briefly the different views as to 
the accuracy of these returns, we have no choice but to 
deal with the figures as they stand. It is unnecessary that 
we should here consider them in great detail.^ Briefly 
summarised, however, the population of Wales and 
Monmouthshire, in regard to language, was composed as 
follows : — 

Speaking only English .... 759,416 



Speaking only Welsh . 
Speaking English and Welsh 
Speaking foreign languages . 
No information (over two years) 
Infants under two years 

Total 



508,036 

402,253 

3,076 

12,833 

90,791 



1,776,405 



It is thus seen that those who spoke English only, 
759,416 in all, outnumbered those who spoke Welsh only, 
who amounted to 508,036 ; while 402,253 were returned as 
bilingual. Or the figures may be put in this other way : 
Of the total population who spoke one or other or both of 
the two languages, 1,161,669 could speak English, while 
910,289 could speak Welsh. The total number of those 

' This is done in the memorandum on the census statistics printed in the 
Commissioners' Appendix, Tables 27 and 28. 

W.P N N 



546 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

who could speak Welsli, however, outnumbered those that 
could not, for while the latter numbered 759,416, the former 
amounted to 910,289. 

The territorial divisions for which the returns as to 
language are given are registration districts and registra- 
tion counties. It follows that the totals are, therefore, 
given not for Wales proper, according to its ancient and 
well-known boundaries, but for registration Wales and 
Monmouthshire, which, as the Commissioners show in 
the Appendix to their Report, is less by 14,116 acres 
than Wales and Monmouthshire ; but the total popu- 
lation of this registration area exceeds that of Wales 
proper by nearly 5,000 persons. The registration districts 
are for all practical purposes the poor law unions 
of the country, but their boundaries are not generally 
known to any great extent outside their own limits, though 
the name of their chief or capital town affords a general 
indication of their situation, inasmuch as such a town is 
usually found to be the natural centre of the district which 
has been formed into the poor law union as well as the 
registration district that bears its name. The boundaries 
of the registration counties differ in most cases so very 
widely from those of the ancient and administrative counties 
that it would be entirely misleading if we were to present 
here the result of the linguistic returns for such counties 
only. By grouping together several registration counties 
the vagaries of the boundaries of each individual county are 
pretty evenly balanced, and there is, in consequence, less 
difficulty in fixing in the mind the general characteristics, the 
contour, and the boundaries of a large area than of a small 
district with artificial or arbitrary boundaries little known 
except by officials whose business it is to be acquainted 
with them, and for whose convenience they have chiefly 
assumed their present form. We shall, therefore, give here 
the ratios of the Welsh and English-speaking population for 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 



547 



such large areas only as can be easily apprehended or borne 
in mind even without the necessity of referring to a map.^ 
We wish, however, to add that in order to render these 
linguistic returns of real value, if they are to be continued, 
in future censuses, both the civil parish and the ancient 
county should be adopted as additional units for which 
the numbers of those speaking Welsh only, English 
only, or both languages should be stated in the published 
returns. 

The following table represents the result of such a 
grouping of registration counties as we have just suggested, 
so far as the returns as to lanFfuaPfe are concerned : — 











Ratio of Total 




Proportion per Cent 


. to Total 


Number of Persons 




whose Spoken Lang 


uage was 


able to speak Welsh 




stated, of Persons speaking. 


to Totatno/ able to 










speak Welsh. 








Both 








English 


Welsh 


English 


Welsh. 


Non- 




only. 


only. 


and 


Welsh. 








Welsh. 






Six Northern Counties. 


23-6 


49 '5 


26'9 


76-3 


237 


Five Western Counties (ex- 












cluding Pembrokeshire) . 


8-3 


66-8 


24-9 


90-9 


9-03 


Six Western Counties (in- 












cluding Pembrokeshire) . 


177 


59-1 


23-2 


82-2 


17-8 


Six Eastern Counties . 


49-1 


22-8 


28-0 


507 


49 "2 


Six Eastern Counties and 












Monmouthshire 


56-8 


187 


24 "4 


43'i 


56-9 


Six Southern Counties . 


44-8 


29-1 


26-1 


55'i 


44 '9 


Six Southern Counties and 












Monmouthshire 


53 -o 


23 "9 


23-1 


46-8 


53"i 


Wales .... 


38-3 


1 r "> 
03 J 


26 "4 


61 -5 


38-5 


Wales and Monmouthshire . 


45-5 


30 "4 


24-1 


54 "4 


45 '6 



The ultimate result of these statistics is, that of the total 
population whose spoken language is recorded, 54*4 per 



' A Linguistic Map of Wales, showing approximately the exterior limits 
of native Welsh in 1890, is published in Southall's "Wales and Her 

N N 2 



548 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

cent, were returned as able to speak Welsh, and 45 6 per 
cent, as unable to do so. 

Though there are no definite statistics to show what 
were the respective numbers of the Welsh and English- 
speaking population of Wales previous to 1891, still various 
estimates have been made of their relative proportions at 
different periods during the present century. 

Thus Mr. Thomas Darlington, who has given consider- 
able attention to the subject,^ estimates that in 1801 the 
number of the English monoglot population of Wales was 
somewhere between 100,000 and 120,000. In other words, 
out of a total enumerated population of 587,245, about 
20 per cent, were English-speaking, the remaining 80 per 
cent, being Welsh-speaking. Sir Thomas Phillips, the 
author of a most valuable work on the social condition of 
the Prirjcipality," published in 1849, estimated that in 1841 
the proportion of the Welsh to English-speaking popula- 
tion was as 67 to 33. But the population of Wales during 
the period that had elapsed since 1801 had increased by more 
than 60 per cent., and when it is realised that this increase 
included very large numbers of immigrants from England 
into industrial districts of the Principality, the Welsh 
language must be said to have held its own ground with 
remarkable tenacity. Thirty years later, after the census 
of 1871, Mr. Ravenstein made a careful and exhaustive 
inquiry as to the numbers of the Celtic-speaking populations 
of the United Kingdom, and the result, so far as Wales 
was concerned, showed that, according to his estimate, 

Language " (2nd ed., 1893). A later map, based on the census returns of 
1 89 1, and showing the percentage of the Welsh-speaking population in the 
fifty-two registration districts of Wales, was published by the same author 
in his " Welsh Language Census of 1891 " (Newport, 1895). 

' See "The English-speaking Population of Wales" in "Wales" for May, 
1894, pp. ii-i6. 

" "Wales: The Language, .Social Condition, Moral Character, and 
Religious Opinions of the People, considered in relation to Education," p . 7 



LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 



549 



the proportions of the Welsh and English populations 
had not greatly changed since 1841. According to his 
conclusions on the subject,^ the Welsh-speakers of Wales 
represented in 1871 66*2 per cent. 

These various estimates can perhaps be best understood 
if cast in a tabular form, where they can also be placed in 
juxtaposition to the ascertained results of the census of 
1891 :— 





1 801. 


1841. 


1871. 


1891. 




Persons. 




Persons. 


fu a 


Persons. 


CD 
U ^ 




Persons. 





Welsh . 

English (only) 


(About) 

470,000 

100,000 to 

120,000 


8u 
20 


700,000 
346,000 


67 

33 


1,006,100 
406,500 


66-2 

33-8 


910,289 
759-415 


54'4 
45-5 


Total enumerated \ 
Population. J 


587,245 


100 


1,046,073 


100 


1,412,583 


100 


1,669,7052 


100 



Assuming the first estimates to be substantially correct, 
the result of this table may be stated thus : — The whole 
population of Wales has trebled during the 90 years from 
1 80 1 to 1891 ; the Welsh-speaking population has rather 
more than doubled in that time ; but the purely English 
population has increased nearly sevenfold. 

That the great increase in the English population of 
Wales has to some extent been brought about at the 
expense of the Welsh-speaking population is a conclusion 
which has already been forced upon us when we were 

^ Quoted in the " Report of the Committee on Intermediate Education in 
Wales, 1881," p. xlvii. The results of Mr. Ravenstein's inquiry were stated in 
a paper read by him before the Statistical Society, of which the portions 
relating to Wales were reproduced in "Bye-Gones " for May 7, 1879. 

■^ This is the total for registration Wales and Monmouthshire, omitting 
infants (a) under two years of age, (d) adults who spoke neither Welsh nor 
English, and (c) those who made no statement as to their language. 



550 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xii.) 

considering the encroachment of Engh'sh on the border dis- 
tricts of the counties of Radnor, Brecon, and Montgomery.^ 
But this growth of the EngHsh-speaking population is 
probably due, even in a larger degree, to the immigration 
of English people into Wales, concurrently of course with 
the emigration of Welsh-speaking persons from Wales. 

^ See above, pp. 526-7. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 

In estimating the moral and intellectual condition of 
the Welsh, it will be convenient to discuss facts of two 
distinct orders tog-ether, to wit, the natural disposition or 
racial characteristics of the people, and the circumstances 
under which they live. Under the latter heading we 
proceed to consider the questions of food and clothing, 
of farmhouses and cottages. 

We begin with the diet of the farmers and labourers, 
premising that we have found no reason to draw any 
distinction in these matters between tenant farmers and 
small freeholders ; and in a general way we may say, that 
in the matter of food as in many others the difference 
between the small farmer's family and that of the labourer 
is very trifling. Nay, in some instances, the farmer in a 
small way lives quite as hard as his labourer, and harder 
than the artisans or miners of his district. This har- 
monises with the fact mentioned more than once in the 
evidence collected by the Welsh Land Commission, that 
a labourer frequently expects to become a farmer and 
succeeds in doing so, while, vice versa, the sons of a small 
farmer find it sometimes more advantageous to work as 
labourers than to help at home. This is much the same 
all over the Principality, but when a farmer was asked 
the question as to his meals, he was not always willing 
to answer. Evidently a sort of pride came into play which 



552 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

made the witness put on the best appearance possible 
consistently with the wish not to depart too widely from 
the truth. In other words, questions as to diet were apt 
to be regarded — unnecessarily we think — as inquisitorial ; 
and sometimes a witness could only be got to speak freely 
on the understanding that he was not describing his 
own household, but those of his neighbours or the people 
generally whose houses he visited in his district. In some 
cases the witness seemed to be apprehensive lest his own 
neighbourhood should not appear to advantage as com- 
pared with other parts of the country. This is a kind 
of local pride which we should be scrry to discourage ; 
it is self-respect writ large, and it cannot but tend to 
produce beneficial results, 

Wc now proceed to cite some typical portions of the 
evidence^ as to the diet of the farmers of Wales. Mr. 
Hugh Williams spoke as to Lanfair Mathafarn Eithaf, 
and the adjoining parishes of the Anglesey Union, to the 
effect that some of the farmers there live "on bread-and- 
milk " for breakfast, on " potatoes with butter-milk, and 
potatoes with butter " for dinner, adding that some get 
salt meat, but very seldom any meat except salt meat, 
that is to say, bacon and beef. He went on to say that 
they have bread-and-butter and tea in the afternoon, and 
porridge and butter-milk for supper. Lastly, he said that 
" there are many farmers who cannot afford to get a piece 
of fresh meat once a year." 

Mr. David Davies, a labourer living in the parish of 
Langybi, in Carnarvonshire, made the following statement - 
as to the diet of the farmers in his neighbourhood : " The 
farmer's food is not of the best. It generally consists of 
salted meat, which is kept for a year or so until it is hard 
and difficult to eat. It is not often that the farmer's 
family or the servants get fresh meat, but when they do 
' Qu. 19,895, 19,932—46. - Qu. 11,766. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 553 

get it, it is only the head of a cow or pig when one is 
killed. Generally when a cow is killed for the farmer's 
use it is one which could not be sold to a butcher. If 
a cow is a good one it is always sold to pay the rent. The 
bread is better than it used to be, because they have failed 
to bake barley these last few years, and the farmers are 
compelled to buy wheaten bread. The butter is generally 
fresh and good, but the farmers can afford to give but 
very little to the servants, and little even to their own 
children." 

Mr. Ivan Thos. Davies, giving evidence at Bala, stated it 
as his opinion that the hill farmers have much the same 
fare now as he had when a boy on a farm, and that fare 
he described as follows : — " First of all we had in the 
morning bruised oatmeal cake and butter-milk ; ^ then we 
had some bread-and-butter and tea. For dinner we had 
bacon and potatoes. For tea, at about three or four 
o'clock, we used to have a lot of sucan, followed by a 
cup of tea. Sucan is a kind of thin flummery, or some- 
thing like that. Then we had porridge or bread-and- 
cheese and butter-milk for supper." ^ 

Mr. Gomer Roberts, a native of Merionethshire, who 
now farms in the upper part of the Vale of Clwyd, gave 
us his view to the following effect :^ Being asked as to the 
usual fare of a small farmer and his family, he said that 
they had as their breakfast bread-and-milk ox potes (a kind of 

1 This kind of food is very common in Gwyned, and it goes by the English 
name of " shot "; but in Anglesey and parts of Carnarvonshire it is known 
also as picws 7ncLli. The oatmeal cake is bruised quite small, and butter- 
milk is mixed with it. It is then mostly eaten forthwith, but we have 
sometimes heard of its being left standing to give the bread time to swell. 
Even without that delay, however, it proves a very satisfying food, and the 
farmers know from experience that a servant who partakes of it freely will 
not require much else to complete his meal ; and, above all, they regard it as 
conducive to economy in the matter of butter and cheese and meat. 

- Qu. 6,961 — 4, 6,934. 

^ Qu. 61,156 — 78, 61,225—9, 62,264—5. 



554 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

pottage or broth), and that this was followed by bread-and- 
butter and tea. For dinner they had " meat always, bacon 
or mutton or beef" ; but he proceeded to explain that 
" bacon is the backbone of the meal " ; and they had fresh 
meat occasionally, as, for instance, when a sheep was killed 
or when, within the last few years, a farmer found butchers' 
meat pressed on him at a very low price — a lower price, in 
fact, than that at which he could cure his own bacon. In 
the afternoon they would have bread-and-butter and tea, 
and for supper they had bread-and-milk or potts, as in the 
morning. This witness stated that the bread in his present 
district had for the last few years been all wheat, and by 
way of comparison he stated that more oatmeal bread was 
made in Merionethshire, and that a good deal more 
porridge was eaten there. He considered that the food 
eaten in Merionethshire was better than the food prevalent 
in the Vale of Clwyd, and further that the less tea people 
take, and the more milk and meat, the better ; this he 
considered " the strongest food and the best." 

Mr. David Rogers, farming in the parish of Forden, in 
Montgomeryshire, spoke to the following effect^ as to his 
own farm : They had breakfast at six o'clock, which in the 
case of the men consisted of broth ; between nine and ten 
they had a meal which he called a bait; then came dinner, 
with mutton or beef, or whatever meat there might be ; and 
between four and five in the afternoon came another meal, 
involving cold meat, cheese, and butter ; and, lastly, there 
was supper. He remarked that in harvest-time his men 
had meat at all their meals except breakfast, and that the 
meat was fresh ; but he was 'of opinion that they had not 
always fared so well. 

Nevertheless it is a tradition, probably of long standing 
in other parts of Wales, that the farmers of Montgomery- 
shire near the English borders fared, comparatively 
> Qu. 65,797—808. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 555 

speaking, better than those of other parts of the Princi- 
pality, say, for instance, Cardiganshire. In this latter 
county it used, in the days before the making of the 
railway connecting Aberystwyth with Shrewsbury and 
Oswestry, to be related of them that it was their custom 
to begin dinner with the pudding ever since one of them 
had chanced to die before reaching that course. The 
alleged change was supposed by a people who rarely 
tasted pudding to embody the rule of securing the best 
thing first. As to the five meals, however, they will be 
found referred to in other parts of the evidence.^ 

In the adjoining county of Radnor the fare appears to 
be much the same as in Forden, except that less fresh 
meat is eaten there; and one witness, Mr. Lewelyn Pugh, 
from the parish of St. Harmon, an old man of eighty-four, 
gave it as his opinion- that when he was a boy people did 
not live in his neighbourhood " the tenth part as well " as 
they do now. 

Mr. W. O. Brigstocke, speaking generally of the farmers 
in the unions of Cardigan and Newcastle P2mlyn, used the 
following words : ^ — " The Welsh tenant farmer is most 
thrifty and frugal ; and his diet, though somewhat rough, 
is healthy and sufficient. It consists of tea, bread, butter, 
cheese, milk, bacon, and vegetables ; fresh meat is rarely 
seen at table, and the diet of the ordinary farmer differs 
but little from that of the labourer." But Mr. J. C. Jones, 
trading at Lanarth, in the neighbourhood of Aberayron, 
Cardiganshire, spoke from a minute knowledge of a more 
circumscribed district, and described the usual diet as 
follows : ^ — " The fare of the tenants as a class is hard, and 
I am almost sure if I commenced describing the same it 
would carry on the face of it the air of exaggeration. The 

1 For instance, under Qu. 43,281 and 70,795—800. 

- Qu. 52,996 — 53,005. 

3 Qu. 43,281. ^ Qu. 48>io3- 



556 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

chief meal of the day is cmui or broth, with bacon or 
dried beef and potatoes. Fresh meat is out of the 
question." 

Mr. John Davies, a tenant farmer hving in the parish of 
Landeusant, Carmarthenshire, says ^ of the food there, that 
it, " especially the bread, is better than it used to be." 
" Farmers," he proceeds to say, " very seldom touch 
butchers' meat, but generally live on bread-and-cheese, 
potatoes, and some salted meat. They sell nearly all their 
cattle, butter, and eggs, and all the best things in order to 
pay the landlord." In his cross-examination he gave the 
details of the usual meals in harmony with the summary 
from which we have cited these words. 

Miss Kate Jenkins, speaking as to the parish of Lan- 
gadock, said,- " The living is exceedingly frugal and scanty, 
even in large farms ; fresh meat only on Sundays, often 
never at all ; no butter or meat for breakfast. They will 
not eat butter if dozen tubs in dairy ; it goes to pay rent. 
Broth for dinner daily, with a little salt meat ; I have been 
in a farm where they were only eating broth of oatmeal 
and potatoes, with no meat at all. Farmers will offer you 
tea and bread-and-butter for dinner as a luxury. Very 
hard-working, very little recreation, except to market. 
No holidays, except, perhaps, the sons go by an excursion 
train for two days, or the daughters for a {qv^ days to 
the seaside. No reading-rooms or entertainments, or 
where they have been tried unsuccessful. Singing schools 
and Eistedfods almost the only recreations. A weekly 
newspaper looked upon as a luxury." 

Mr. J. A. Doyle, of Pendarren, near Crickhowell, who 
reported t(^ the Royal Commission on Agriculture, in i88i, 
on the state of farming in Wales, gave evidence to the 
Welsh Land Commission as to a district on the borders of 

' Q^i. 39,554, 39,575—82. - Qu. 38,024. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 557 

Brecknockshire and Monnnouthshire, saying,^ " I should say 
from observation of some of the quite small farmers that I 
should think their standard of comfort was hardly, if at all, 
higher than that of the labourers. As to a former tenant of 
mine on a small farm, which I now occupy myself, of sixty 
acres, I do not think his standard of comfort, so far as I could 
observe, was materially better than that of my labourers." 

Mr. Lewis ILewelyn, a tenant farmer living in the upper 
portion of the Neath Valley, gave the Commission the details 
of the farmer's meals as follows : ^ — " The breakfast consists 
of tea, bread-and-butter or cheese, and, in many places, 
bacon. At dinner, they have potatoes and meat, mostly 
bacon, but sometimes butchers' meat ; then comes in the 
afternoon some tea and bread-and-butter. For supper they 
have milk or broth and bread-and-cheese, but a cup of tea 
for those who are fond of having it again." He considered 
that the bread was good, and that they fared pretty well, 
but he suggested that those living higher among the hills 
lived harder. 

Mr. James Jenkins, a tenant farmer and member of the 
Pembrokeshire County Council, gave his evidence^ at 
Letterston, and stated that they have for breakfast tea or 
coffee and bread-and-cheese and butter, for dinner cazc/, 
a broth or soup containing meal and meat, sometimes 
beef or mutton, but more usually bacon ; and it is very 
seldom that they have any fresh meat. Besides this the 
dinner has the usual complement of potatoes and bread. 
Lastly, the supper is sometimes tea and sometimes cazv/, 
of the nature already described. Mr. Jenkins stated that 
the smaller farmers had been living harder than that, but 
in the Anglo-Flemish part of the county — his farm is near 
the boundary — people fare, according to him, considerably 
better. Asked as to the difference between the Welsh and 

1 Qu. 50,005. '^ Qu. 2,307—20. 

•* Qu. 31,403—30, 28,929—37. 



558 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

the English in the county, he answered, " We are hardier, 
and we Hve harder." Q. — " You think you Hve harder .^ " — 
" Oh, a deal ; there is no doubt about that." Q. — " You live 
harder in the Welsh part .^ " — " Yes ; their landlords — Lord 
Cawdor, for instance — he is very glad to get a Welshman 
down Castle Martin way." Q. — " Do you say they are 
hardier or harder.''" — " Hardier and harder, living harder — 
we can do with commoner things." It is to be noticed 
that this evidence appears to coincide with the charge of 
excessive eating sometimes brought against the Anglo- 
Flemish, as, for example, by George Owen.^- 

We have dealt thus far with the food of the small farmer 
and his household ; and it has been suggested to us more 
than once, that the food provided by large farmers is 
better ; but we can draw no distinction of importance 
between the fare of the small farmer and his labourers who 
eat at his table. Those who have to find for themselves, 
however, live probably harder. Among other things, they 
get less milk, especially in districts remote from towns ; it is 
not worth the farmers' while to sell milk, and though they 
may give the labourers milk when they send to ask for 
some, the latter naturally feel reluctant to trouble them 
too often, and the result is that they and their families fall 
back on tea more and more. The labourers probably fare 
better in the neighbourhood of great centres of industries, 
such as the ironworks of Glamorganshire or the slate 
quarries of North Wales ; for a hard fare would act 

' See his " Pembrokeshire," p. 43, where we read as follows : — " In one 
thinge these our Ffieminges have altered their stomackes from the rest over the 
sea, for in that excesse with which the Dutchmen are taxed for drinkinge are 
these theire kinsmen for excessive eatinge, for of custome at certeine seasons 
and laljors ihey will have fyve meales a daie, and it you will bestowe the sixt 
on them they will accept of it verye kindly, and if they be but a litle intreated, 
they will bestowe laboure on the seaventhe meal." To most men who have 
travelled in Belgium and noticed the ample meals habitually consumed at the 
hotels patronised by Flemings, George Owen would seem to have slightly 
overrated the change in "stomackes." 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 559 

powerfully to make them leave the land and seek other 
employment.^ 

The Commission did not systematically take evidence 
on the question of drink ; but we infer, from incidental 
remarks made by witnesses, that the small farmers seldom 
have beer at home ; and it is only on some of the larger 
farms that beer is given to the servants and labourers, 
which happens mostly in harvest-time, and on special 
occasions. Difficulties have arisen here and there in con- 
sequence of beer being supplied to the labourers, and the 
tendency is to discontinue the supply. In one instance 
the employer, Sir Joseph R. Bailey, of Glan Usk Park, 
Crickhowell, in speaking of the management of his home- 
farm, described the circumstances which led him to put an 
end to the custom of providing beer for his workmen in 
harvest-time ; but they receive each extra pay in that 
season of the year, and the rule appears to work satisfac- 
torily. The ordinary drink of the small farmer and those 
dependent on him is milk, tea, or cold water ; but in some 
instances water with a sprinkling of oatmeal has been 
tried. We have it in evidence that this is pretty generally 
enjoyed in harvest-time in the neighbourhood of Bala ; 
and we understand that the custom is much the same in 
the neighbourhood of Lampeter, Lanybyther, Landyssul, 
and the adjoining districts on both sides of the Teify, 
together with the whole of the country between that river 
and the Towy." 

In looking over the evidence generally as to the diet of 
the small farmers of Wales and their households, one is 
greatly struck by the remarkable improvement which has 
taken place throughout the country. Among other things 
may be mentioned the fact that before the use of foreign 

' For the evidence for the statements made in this paragraph see Qu. 10,774, 
19,946, 24,866, 4,162 — 7, 10,225 — 6, 4,161 — 7. 
" Qu. 3,727, 5,347-8, 7,304-7, 49.802, 49,841—5, 3,649—51. 



56o THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

flour became general the small farmers tried to grow corn 
for their own bread, and that in all the upland country 
they lived mostly on barley bread. If the harvest happened 
to prove disappointing or the weather continued wet, which 
it often did, they suffered in their fare accordingly, and 
anybody who remembers the forties or the fifties will not 
readily forget the sort of bread on their tables, how it 
looked more like lead than food for human beings. But 
they no longer rely on corn crops of their own, and very 
little barley bread is now made. One may say, that there 
has been an advance all along the line. In the course of 
the examination at Bala of Mr. Thomas Davies, a tenant 
farmer, who undertook to speak to the general condition 
of things on the Rhiwlas estate in the parishes of Lanycil 
and Lanfor, the following extract relating to the former 
fare of small farmers in Merionethshire was read from a 
" Prize Essay on the Agriculture of North Wales " : i " For 
dinner you will see a small farmer have half a salt herring, 
with potatoes and butter-milk (very poor food for a work- 
ing man) ; his wife and family must content themselves 
with butter-milk and potatoes, or, perhaps, after the farmer 
has finished his part herring there will be a scramble 
amongst the youngsters for the bones to suck as a treat. 
They sometimes have a little skim-milk cheese with oaten 
bread, some, better off than others, bacon." The witness 
was then asked as to that extract : " Is that a fair average 
truthful picture of what you remember in your youth .'' " 
He answered, " Yes, it is certainly so ; I remember it very 
well " ; - and, in answer to a further question, he said as to the 

' Printed in the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England for 
1846 (vii. 572). See also Qu. 3,726, 5,346, 8,507—9, 8,072. 

" If we go further back, to the seventeenth century for example, we find the 
extreme disparity between the food and drink of the rich and those of the poor 
attracting the attention of strangers : the reader may be referred for an instance 
to " The Account of the Official Progress of his Grace Henry the first Duke 
of Beaufort through Wales in 1684" (London, 1888), p. 249. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 561 

diet that " it is very much better now." This statement as 
to improvement is practically borne out by the evidence 
of Mr. Price, the owner of the Rhiwlas estate, who said in 
his evidence : ^ " Unmarried men prefer living in the farm- 
houses, because they get food and lodging free ; and the 
master is bound to see to their comforts, and one of my 
tenants told me that they now insist on meat and tarts and 
pudding at dinner." 

It is needless to produce more evidence on this point : 
it is so generally admitted that we have as a rule taken it 
for granted. Nevertheless there is no denying that some 
of the small farmers have still a hard fare ; we need only 
recall the words of Mr. J. C. Jones which we have already 
cited. But there is also evidence in point from Mr. R. 
Foulkes Jones, headmaster of the board school at Lwyn- 
gwril, between Towyn and Barmouth.^ Asked concerning 
the food of the children of the farmers in his district, he 
answered as to those who came from a distance and ate 
their midday food in the schoolroom, especially in winter, 
as follows : " I have seen farmers' children in the school 
eating barley bread and a red herring divided between two 
or three of them, and drinking butter-milk with it." He 
characterised them as " very badly fed indeed," and he did 
not regard the fare as adequate to keep the children in 
health. Even in the districts where the fare is still hard, 
we have no doubt that it was harder half a century ago, 
not to go back to the hard times before the repeal of the 
Corn Laws ; and speaking of the country generally, the 
advance in the people's ideas of comfort cannot readily 
be exaggerated. 

There remain, however, a few remarks which we wish 
to make with respect to that progress itself in so far as 
regards food. We wculd refer again to the little import- 
ance attached to milk as part of the food of the labourers' 

1 Qu. 16,318. ■ 2 Qu. 16,035—8. 

W. P. O O 



562 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

families, since we do not think it altogether satisfactory 
that tea should take its place. We have it in the evi- 
dence ^ given to the Commission at Bridgend, in Glamorgan- 
shire, by Dr. Wyndham Randall, medical officer of health 
in the district, that the diet of the outdoor labourer and 
his family " might be improved if more milk were made 
use of, particularly by the children." Similarly, the Rev. 
R. W. Griffith, whose ministry was carried on among the 
people of the parish of Landeiniolen, in Carnarvonshire, 
stated ^ that the workmen in the quarries " live to a great 
extent on tea," while the agricultural labourers " get a 
good deal of milk food." Asked to compare the results 
so far as his observations went, he said, " Those who take 
milk food as a rule are broader men and stronger men." 

We cannot help deprecating the increasing consumption 
of tea, and the change to the modern diet has not been, 
perhaps, in other respects wholly beneficial. The old 
regime is exemplified in Welsh parlance as represented by 
the triad F'ezvyrth a modryb ac uzvd, " Uncle and Aunt 
and stirabout," as contrasted with the" newer regime, with 
its Mistres a niistyr a the, " Mistress and Master and tea." 
Porridge or stirabout, called in Welsh uivd, has probably, 
in some form or other, been an important part of the daily 
fare of the Welsh peasantry from time immemorial. For 
we are carried back far into the past by the suggestive 
fact that the Welsh word has its exact equivalent in the 
old Cornish iot and in the Breton iod for a dish cooked in 
a somewhat similar fashion, from which the sturdy peasants 
of Brittany are sometimes called paotred-iod, or " porridge- 
boys." In Wales tiwd is altogether made either of oatmeal 
or of groats, and it is mostly taken with milk. But it is 
not the only food of the sort made from oatmeal, for 
flummery, called in Welsh Uymry^ is also made of oatmeal, 

1 Qu. 16,035—8. 2 Qu. 12,256—9. 

•' t* lummery is made liy placing oatme'^1 Ip soak in water until it has become 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 563 

and is eaten a good deal in parts of Wales instead oi tnvd, 
as it is also in Brittany, for instance, in the neighbourhood 
of Lanion, in the Cotes du Nord. But flummery is not 
such good food for a man who works, as porridge ; and 
the latter continues, on the whole, to be preferred in most 
parts of the Principality, as it does in Scotland. 

At one time oatmeal cake used to be more commonly 
eaten in Wales than it is now ; but in such matters the 
Principality comes readily under English influence, and had 
England been so well known for its bannocks as Scotland 
they would have continued more in favour in Wales 
probably than they are. In the case of porridge the fact 
of its appearing on the breakfast- table of well-to-do English 
people will prevent the tendency to drop it. The fashion 
in such matters spreads from the houses of the rich in 
England to those of the bourgeoisie, and from these it 
reaches in many ways the houses of the small shopkeepers 
in the towns and watering-places of Wales, Thence it 
propagates itself in the farmhouses, and it may do good 
or the reverse, according to the nature of the change. In 
the matter of porridge its influence would be on the 

sour, when the solid stuff, or bran, is squeezed out of it, and the rest passed 
through a strainer or sieve. It is then boiled to the consistency of a blanc-mange 
and taken with milk : with sweet milk it makes very palatable food. A thinner 
or fluid kind of flummery is made in Wales, chiefly for supper, and is called 
itican in North Wales, and bwdran in South Wales ; with the latter vocable 
compare its medieval Irish name buaidrhi. The names vary : thus sticati is 
pronounced sican in North Wales, and sycan in parts of South Wales, where 
it is partly used instead of the word iiyinry, while in South Cardiganshire the 
longer term uwd sucan is heard for fiyfury. In Brittany the flummery is, we 
suspect, partly made of wheat flour, as is the case still more with the idd ; 
and in 1888, whilst on a visit at M. Renan's house at Ros map Ammon, near 
Perros Guirec, Professor Rhys had an opportunity of making a comparison. 
Mme. Renan took Mrs. Rhys one day to visit some farms in the neighbourhood, 
and came across a family partaking of a dish of the flummery kind. This led 
her to mention how fond her husband was of it, whereupon the farmer's wife 
insisted on sending some at once to Ros map Ammon. M. Renan relished it 
thoroughly, but the Welshman, though fond of Hymry, could not make much 
way with the Armoric variant. 

2 



564 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

right side ; but in the matter, for instance, of broth or 
soup, the influence of the fashion is the reverse. For the 
making of a cheap and nutritious soup is a problem which 
it is not given the national genius of England to solve, and 
when the Welsh farmer visits a shopkeeper or tradesman 
in the town where he does his marketing, he finds no kind 
of soup on the table. So he goes home convinced that 
such a dish is not fashionable, and though some kind of 
soup should continue to be made in his own house, he 
would not consider it the right thing to place any of it 
before a stranger who happens to be his guest. We men- 
tion this, as the art of making an excellent soup is not yet 
extinct in certain parts of the Principality, such as Cardi- 
ganshire : it is made by boiling meat in water in which are 
put a little oatmeal and a certain quantity of vegetables, 
such as leeks, cabbages, turnips, or carrots. This and other 
cheap dishes, in the making of which Welsh women have 
some experience, should serve as the starting-point in the 
cookery schools to be established in the Principality, at 
any rate if they are to produce beneficial results in the 
near future. 

This leads us to touch on the question of cookery among 
the farmers. The wife of a small farmer usually takes 
part in the cooking, or at any rate tries to superintend it, 
and a good deal beyond the immediate comfort of the 
family depends on her skill and on that of the maid who 
does the cooking. For at hiring time the state of the kitchen 
at each farm is pretty well known in the neighbourhood, 
and the qualifications of the maid who has charge of it 
are freely canvassed. In case she has a bad name, as 
unsuccessful in baking, for instance, or in boiling potatoes, 
the farmer who engages her cannot readily get the best 
servant-men to enter his service. Further, the depression in 
agriculture tends to the same result, namely, by compelling 
the farmers to engage young and incompetent servant- 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 565 

maids, who lack the teaching and experience necessary to 
make them fit for their work in the kitchen. The Com- 
mission made no systematic inquiry into this matter, but it 
was occasionally brought under its notice, as, for instance, 
by Mr. Richard Rowlands, a farm labourer from Gwalchmai, 
in Anglesey. While admitting that there had been improve- 
ment in the food-stuffs which the farmers procured for their 
households, he found fault with the cooking, and said : ^ 
" The servant-girls, as a rule, are very young ; they are too 
young to know. They have no experience in cooking, and, 
of course, farmers employ them because they get them 
for little wages." He admitted that the farmers' wives 
understood cooking, but he characterised it as " cooking 
for themselves," not for the servants or labourers. Evi- 
dence to somewhat the same effect was given us by a man 
of a different standing, namely. Dr. Rowlands, physician 
and surgeon, practising at Lanaelhaiarn, in Carnarvon- 
shire. Asked as to the diet of the labourers and peasantry 
on whom he attends, whether he thought it satisfactory for 
men engaged in manual labour, he answered,^ " No, it is 
not. Their food is almost in a raw state. That is a 
reason why I should suggest a school of cookery for the 
farm servants to learn cookery, and to manage the house 
when they get married." We think that this witness looked 
for the remedy in the right direction, namely, that of 
improved education and better training, which the other 
witness did not regard as having yet reached the Isle of 
Anglesey; 

On the question of clothing the Commission seldom held 
it necessary to ask for evidence. There is very little 
difference in this matter between Wales and England, and 
hardly any between the Welsh farmer and his labourer. 
In the case of farmers' children who work on their fathers' 
farms this last point is well illustrated by the correspondence 
1 Qu. 22,545—55, 22,588—95. - Qu. 11,722 



566 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

which Mr. Gee had had with thirty farmers in the Vale of 
Clwyd as to their condition, and of which he gave the 
Commission a summary in his evidence.^ Concerning his 
children working on his own farm, one farmer wrote : "They 
get only food and clothing, and they are worse clothed than 
the servants." Another used the words, " They work like 
slaves, but are not clothed as they should be, and their 
shoes are worse than their clothes." And a third wrote : 
" They get food and clothing, but are worse clothed than 
labourers' children." Lastly, in answer to a question of 
Lord Kenyon's as to the farmers' daughters more especially, 
Mr. Gee said : "When you see farmers' daughters in Denbigh 
they are in their best, but if you saw them at home, as I 
have seen them, I am sure it would touch your feelings." 

There are two or three remarks of a more general nature 
which it occurs to us to make at this point ; and among 
other things we may mention, that as regards the relative 
importance of respectable clothing and good food, the 
former stands higher in the estimation of the average 
Welsh man or woman of the farming or of the labouring 
class than it does in that of an English person of the same 
sex and position in life. Formerly, when the communica- 
tion with England was more costly and precarious than it 
has been ever since railways have become available, a 
Welsh rustic who happened to have relatives settled in the 
west of England was not more struck by anything than 
what he considered their extravagance in the matter of 
food and their lack of proper pride in that of dress. His 
own tendency would be rather to stint himself in food in 
order to spend more on clothes in which to appear on 
Sunday, and, however desirous of attending the Sunday 
School or the other meetings at his chapel, he would stay 
at home rather than attend in his week-day clothes. This 
tendency is still more perceptible among the mining portion 
' Qu. 64,004, 64,014. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 567 

of the population, and especially the quanymen of North 
Wales. It is needless to say that it is sometimes carried 
to excess, leading to pecuniary difficulties ; but, on the 
other hand, the way in which the women, for instance, in 
the quarry districts can dress, gives evidence to a natural 
taste, to a sense of colour and proportion which may be 
sometimes looked for in vain in ladies of a higher position 
in life in England. The ideal of the well-wisher of the 
Welsh people, in matters of this kind, should be to encourage 
economy without discouraging what artistic instincts they 
may have inherited as a part of their natural endowment. 

From an antiquarian point of view there is probably 
little to be said of Welsh dress from the Tudor times to 
the present day, except what might be said of the fashions 
in England during the same time. Even the so-called 
Welsh hat which was still to be seen worn in the sixties 
by women in Cardiganshire, less frequently in Merioneth, 
Carnarvonshire, and Anglesey, has nothing distinctly 
Welsh : it was introduced from England, as may be seen 
from the examination of paintings dating from the Stuart 
times. How early Welsh dress had been assimilated to 
the fashions prevailing in England it is impossible to say 
in the absence of a systematic investigation of the subject. 
But if one pursues it back into antiquity, one will find 
peculiarities of dress becoming synonymous with marks of 
race. Thus we have a Gallia Bracata, which was charac- 
terised by the men wearing the braces, " breeches or 
trousers," and the poet Martial, in the first century of our 
era, speaks of the braces of a Briton, alluding, probably, to 
some of the Brythons who still lived on the Continent ; 
but the dress of those in this country was presumably the 
same. On the other hand, the Highland kilt probably 
represents the dress of the Goidels of this country in 
former times. This is found delineated on an old figured 
stone preserved at The Knoll, near Neath. Its surface is 



568 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

occupied mostly by a rudely-carved human figure inter- 
preted, according to the late Professor Westwood, to be in 
the attitude of prayer, the only dress represented being a 
short apron or kilt, reaching from the waist to the middle of 
the legs ; this garb is formed of a series of longitudinal strips 
radiating from a waistband, and giving the appearance of 
a short and very thickly quilted petticoat, just as in several 
of the Irish figures on the shrine of St. Manchan.^ Another 
stone appears to show a figure clothed in a similar short 
kilt : it is at Landevailog, in Brecknockshire, and bears 
the minuscule inscription, Briamail Floii^ that is to say, 
the cross of Brigoniaglus Flavus, and Professor Westwood 
ascribed it hesitatingly to the eleventh century, but it may 
well date far earlier. 

An inscribed stone of the same class as that of Briamail 
occurs at Lanamlech, near Brecon, and shows two figures, 
regarded by Professor Westwood as clad in long shirt-like 
garments reaching down to the knees : he supposed one 
of them to represent St. John. The inscription states in 
faulty Latin that the stone was put up by a certain Moridic, 
whose name wears a Goidelic aspect ; and the whole is 
supposed, by the same authority, to date before the neigh- 
bourhood of Brecon had felt the pervading influence of the 
Normans.-^ 

Giraldus Cambrensis, in his " Itinerarium Kambriae," 
written in the twelfth century, describes the personal 
appearance of Kynwric, son of Rhys, prince of South 
Wales, and remarks, as to his dress, that he was clad in a 
thin cloak only and a shirt, and that his shins and feet were 
left naked, regardless of thistles and thorns.^ The rude 

' We lake this account of the stone from the late Professor Westwood's 
" Lapidariiun Wallire," p. 37 ; see also liis plate xxv., fig. 3. 
- //'/(/., p. 59, plate xxxiii. 

■' See the " Lapidariuin Wallite," pp. 68, 69, and jilate xxxviii., figs. 3, 4, 5. 

* Giraldiis's words are to be found in book ii., chapter iv., and run thus : — 

'' Adolcscens ipic {Kene^vricus filiiis A'csi] Jlavtis ct crispus, pulcher et procerstts. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. ^6g 

drawings of the officers of the Welsh court, given in a 
Hengvvrt manuscript of the early part of the thirteenth 
century, present the same general appearance as regards 
dress.^ The same may also be said of the pen-and-ink 
sketches of Welshmen to be found in the margin of the 
Registrum Munimentonun {Liber A), a volume made up 
of documents belonging to the reign of Edward I. now 
preserved at the Record Office.^ The Welshman of that 
period appears to have been somewhat more scantily 
clothed than the Irishman, if we may judge by their 
respective figures in this manuscript, but while the latter is 
quite unshod, the Welshman wears one shoe, namely, on 
the left foot. Even as late as the commencement of the 
present century, many of the poorer peasantry went about 
barefooted. An English barrister resident in the neigh- 
bourhood of Newcastle Emlyn, in giving evidence in 1843 
before the Commissioners of Inquiry for South Wales, 
referred thus to the matter (Qu. 5,566): " Formerly, twenty 
years ago, you saw the women walking about without shoes 
and stockings, but now you never see such an occurrence in 
this part of the country." At the present day the children 
of small farmers, and of labourers or shepherds, are allowed 
to go barefooted for a month or two in summer : otherwise 
shoes and stockings are the rule in every countryside. To 

ut patricB gentique morem gereret, pallia tenui solum et interiila indutus, tibiis. 
et pedibus nudis tribtilos et spinas non formidantibus ; vir non arte quidein, sed 
natura muniius ; pluriinum quippe dignitatis ex se trcEferrens , ex adjuncto 
parum.'^ See p. 252 above. 

1 See Aneurin Owen's edition of the " Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales " 
(Public Record Of&ce, mdcccxli.), vol. ii., pp. 749 — 814, and the Editor's 
preface, vol. i., p. xxxii. 

" See Thomas Wright's "History of Caricature and Grotesque," pp. 177 — 
180; and ■' Y Cymmrodor, " x. 201. Two of these sketches of Welshmen are 
reproduced in Wright's work; the first "represents a Welshman armed with 
bow and arrow, whose clothing consists apparently only of a plain tunic and a 
light mantle," while a shoe is worn on his left foot. " The second [Welshman] 
carries a spear, which he apparently rests on the single shoe of his left foot, 
while he brandishes a sword in his left hand. " 



570 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

return, however, to the mediaeval peculiarities of dress to 
which we have referred, it is impossible to say at present 
how far we should be justified in regarding them as survivals 
of the dress characteristic of the Goidels of Britain in early 
times. In any case, the analogous survival of their idioms 
and laws suggests it as a proper subject of an inquiry 
which we, unfortunately, cannot prosecute. 

In this chapter we have abstained from discussing either 
diet or dress from the economical point of view : it is 
all the more necessary to observe the same distinction 
with regard to the large mass of evidence taken by the 
Commission on the next subject, namely, the housing of 
the farmers and those immediately depending on them. 
So we shall here deal with the question of dwelling-houses 
chiefly in so far as they exercise obvious influence on the 
habits and mode of life of the people engaged in agricul- 
ture. A great many complaints were made to us from 
tenants as to their houses being out of repair; and in some 
cases they proved almost incredible neglect on the part of 
all concerned, while in some instances the houses were so 
old and so poor that the landowner did not think it worth 
the while to put them in repair. Here and there he 
appeared to be improving the houses on his estate as fast 
as the outlay of capital would admit, which meant that some 
of the tenants who had to wait for their turn experienced 
hardship for years. Now and then also the rebuilding of 
an old house involved the tenant in great discomfort for a 
shorter time. In some instances^ we were told of the walls 
having to be propped up to prevent their falling and 
killing the inmates ; in others we were informed of a 
family having for a time to live in a barn, or in a stable. 
In one case we heard of frogs leaping about the bedroom, 
and in several mention was made of snow falling on the 

' Qii. 45>56o, 45.564> 41,846, 42,857, 44,443. 46,421, 64,407, 38,745, 
42,367—72, 42,813. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 571 

beds. But however great the inconvenience and hardship 
which such cases as these involved, it is right to distinguish 
those which may be regarded as more or less temporary 
and transitional from those in which the bad or inadequate 
accommodation has been normal, and more or less per- 
manent. We may here cite the words of Mr. J. C. Jones, 
of Lanarth, who expressed his opinion, with regard to the 
neighbourhood of Aberayron, as follows:^ "Although great 
progress has been made of late years in regard to better 
buildings, I venture to say some landlords house their 
dogs and horses better than they do their tenants ; " and 
Mr. Richard Rowlands, an Anglesey labourer, whom we 
have already cited, expressed himself to the same effect as 
regards the housing afforded the labourers by the farmers 
of Anglesey." 

Mr. Henry Jones, a tenant farmer, representing the 
farmers of Clynnog, in Carnarvonshire, stated in his 
evidence ^ that there are but few comfortable houses in 
his neighbourhood, and those but recently built. The rest 
are, according to him,, old houses, with very inadequate 
sleeping accommodation, and very rarely provided with 
proper sanitary arrangements. 

One of the most general complaints was that as to 
insufficient accommodation, especially for men and women 
to sleep. Mr. Richard Edwards, a tenant farmer from 
Pennal, in Merionethshire, gave the following descrip- 
tion * of what had been his home : " The house was an 
old-fashioned one, a kitchen and two bedrooms downstairs, 
and two bedrooms over the kitchen and dairy. There was 
no flooring, and the fire was on the ground. The chimney 
was a big old-fashioned one, through which the sky could 
easily be seen, and through which the rain and snow came 
down freely. The sleeping accommodation upstairs was 

1 Qu. 65,031, 49,103- ^ Qu. 22,557. 

^ Qu. 12,769 -72. "• Qu. 70,536. 



572 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

very deficient, inconvenient, and unhealthy. The female 
inmates of the house had to pass through the men's bed- 
room to their own. The house being a low one the beds 
were quite close to the slates of the roof, and we had to 
bend down so as not to touch the roof. The roof was also 
in a bad condition ; there was no ceiling and no kind of 
plastering. The wind drove the rain and snow between 
the slates, and I remember on many occasions in winter 
being covered, when in bed at night, with about five inches 
of snow. We lived in the house in this condition for many 
years. I mention these facts because there are still farmers 
living in such houses." 

The Rev. William Williams, a Baptist minister, living at 
Knighton, speaking of the houses in that district, used the 
following words : ^ "Of course, there are some excellent 
farmhouses and excellent cottages, and particularly in this 
neighbourhood. There are a good many excellent cottages, 
better than small farms up in the country ; there are others 
again, especially small farmhouses, that are not at all well 
arranged internally, and not with sufficient room. Had it 
not been for the presence of ladies in the court, I could 
give you dreadful instances, shocking instances, of the way 
sleeping accommodation is arranged, tending greatly to 
indecency and immorality." He explained in another 
answer that he alluded to houses where there would be, 
for instance, a father and mother, and children between 
fifteen and twenty years of age, all sleeping in the same 
room ; and he added that he had himself known cases of 
that kind. 

Miss Kate Jenkins, while speaking- as to farms in the 
Vale of Towy, and admitting that the buildings are on the 
whole improving, instanced several bad cases known to 
her, adding, as a general remark, that " Welsh farmers will 
inhabit houses no English farmer would live in." 

' Qu. 54,947-9. 54,966—7. - Qu. 38,024, 38,033—9, 39,745. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 573 

Mr. Thomas Davies, a tenant farmer, who gave his 
evidence at Lansawel, in Carmarthenshire, specified 
certain very poor buildings, and spoke ^ in particular of 
one farmhouse as " having one sleeping-room upstairs, 
where both the sexes sleep, with no divisions between 
them, no ceiling overhead between them and the slate 
roof, and the wind and the snow getting in through the 
crevices." 

Mr. John Thomas, tenant farmer and butter merchant, 
specified in his evidence,- given to the Commission at 
Landeilo, a number of farms with bad buildings, and 
gave certain particulars, in which he spoke of " one 
farm where all the buildings are deplorably bad, the 
farmer and his wife sleeping downstairs, and the men 
and maid-servants, the carpenter, the tailor, and the 
sons on their holidays, all sleeping in the same room 
upstairs, for there are a vast number of farmhouses which 
have no partition at all upstairs ; another farm, rent 80/., 
where a visitor would have to sleep either with the servant 
over the cows, or in the same room with the servant-girl." 
We make one more extract from his evidence to the fol- 
lowing effect : — "In another farm, whose rent is 88/., there 
is only one fireplace, and that is in the kitchen, the only 
room where the women can do their work. The son of 
this farmer has a high social position, but when he comes 
home for his holidays he has to sleep with the servant-man 
on the dowlod over the cows, or in the loft where the 
servant-girl sleeps, and which is not partitioned." He 
added the following remarks : " If the doctors of Wales 
told all they knew on the subject, they would put to shame 
many landlords who talk glibly of morality. It is sheer 
hypocrisy on their part to talk of it, when they know that 
the hearts of many of their tenants bleed because of this 
perilous inconvenience." 

1 Qu. 39.745 2 Qu_ 38,252. 



574 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xtii.) 

Mr. Jenkin Thomas, son of a tenant farmer, living in the 
neighbourhood of Cardiff, gives the following description^ 
of the house in which he was brought up : " We were a 
family of thirteen— eleven children and our parents — living 
in this house on the farm. There were three bedrooms 
in the house and two front rooms, and a small back 
kitchen, a small pantry, and a small dairy. In conse- 
quence, we, as a family, had to put three beds in the 
same room, and seven of us slept in the same room, 
and we had not room even to walk between these 
three beds. We had to go over a bed to get into 
bed. The servant-men, in consequence, had to sleep 
out in the buildings, and that was a great inconvenience 
to us." 

These extracts lead us to mention the accommodation 
for farm servants, and, first of all, to say that in some 
districts servant-men sleep in the farmhouses, or adjuncts 
to the farmhouses ; but in the case of the counties of Flint 
and Denbigh, and in some instances in Anglesey also, it is 
not unusual for the access to their bedrooms to be by 
means of outside stairs. The prevailing custom in the 
greater part of Wales, however, is for them to have their 
beds made in the lofts of the outhouses, such as the barns, 
cowhouses, or the stables. This has been spoken of 
repeatedly as highly unsatisfactory for more reasons than 
one. In Anglesey, Mr. John Hughes, a farm labourer 
appointed to give evidence by a committee of the farm 
labourers of that county, spoke to the lack of accommoda- 
tion for the servant-men in the farmhouses, and added the 
following words : " The day-schools teach the children 
until they have passed Standard V., or until they are 
thirteen years of age, and then they go to the farmers, and 
they are put to sleep and live with the cattle, and they 
lose all that they have learnt in the school, and become 
' Qu. 26,530 — I. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 575 

of the same nature as the beasts. That is the truth of the 
matter."^ 

Mr. David Davies, a farm labourer from Langybi, in 
Carnarvonshire, spoke as follows:- "The places allotted 
by the farmers to their servants to sleep are altogether 
improper on account of size and situation, being only small 
rooms, with very limited head room, scarcely sufficient for 
an ordinary man to stand erect in. Other servants sleep 
in lofts above the cattle either in stables or cowhouses. 
There is seldom room in the farmhouses themselves ; they 
generally are very small, and without rooms upstairs. They 
try and place one bed in such a position as to screen 
another. I have been sleeping one of six in a loft above 
cows : there was not sufficient room for a person to stand 
erect in. There were three beds placed in the room. The 
narrow space between the beds was all the room we had. 
I have been walking miles during the half-year in order to 
sleep elsewhere than in this room." 

Another point at which the inadequacy of the farmhouse 

accommodation was pointed out to the Commission 

more than once is in connection with the question of the 

treatment of the servant-men or labourers resident on a 

farm. In some cases we have been told that they are 

welcome to pass their evenings in the kitchen ; but in the 

majority of instances^ that seems to be hardly the case, and 

for the valid reason that there is no room to spare for 

them. On this point, Mr. Samuel Hughes, chairman of the 

Anglesey County Council, stated * that " the farm labourers 

are not looked upon kindly if they stay in the house on a 

winter's night ; they expect them to go," he said, " to their 

stable, and to their loft." This statement is corroborated 

by the evidence^ of one of their own number, Mr. Richard 

1 For the evidence see Qu. 55,564 — 8, 56,428, 59,063 — 6, 63,106, 63,123 — 8, 
19,611, and also 20,889, 20,903, 42,588—9. 
- Qu. 11,766. =* Qu. 31,463, 47,235—9. 

•* Qu. 21,964. ^ Qu. 22,561. 



576 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

Rowlands ; for, according to him, they may go to the 
kitchen for some time, but he adds that in most places 
they will be turned out, as the farmer may want to make 
some other use of that room ; and another Anglesey 
labourer, Mr. John Hughes, who has already been cited, 
spoke concerning the Aberffraw district as follows : " There 
is no accommodation whatever provided for the labourers 
for the evening, only let them go where they will." Against 
this, however, must be placed the evidence^ of Mr. Thomas 
Prichard, farmer, landowner, and agent of the Bodorgan 
estate and other properties in Anglesey, who stated that 
some farmers welcomed their servant-men to spend their 
evenings in the kitchen, and some did not. 

Dr. Rowlands, speaking, as already suggested, of the 
district around Lanaelhaiarn, in Carnarvonshire, stated that 
the servant-men have no accommodation for the evenings 
except the lofts of the stables. And the same state of 
things was spoken to as prevalent in the western portion 
of Denbighshire by Mr. Hugh Owen, whose evidence was 
taken at Conway, and by Mr. William Jones, who spoke as 
to the district of Cerrig y Drudion, in that county.- 

The same deficiency of accommodation for the evenings 
is proved by the evidence^ of Mr. Thomas Davies, who came 
forward at Lansawel. The servant-men, according to him, 
besides having poor sleeping accommodation in the out- 
houses, " have no place to sit down or read, or anything." 

On the other hand, Mr. J. M. Davies, of Froodvale, 
who spoke from his extensive acquaintance with estates 
especially in Carmarthenshire, said, in answer to the question 
whether servant-men have fire and light in the evenings, 
that " they live in the kitchen, with every comfort." The 
Commission had evidence* to the same effect from Mr. D. E. 

1 Qu. 20,889. 

- Qu. 11,679, 15.132—52, 17,275—87- 

^ Qu. 40,002 — 25. 

' Qu. 37,645, 43.131— 3. 46,209, 44,235, 31.463-6. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 577 

Stephens, a landowner in the same county ; and Mr. J. C. 
Harford, a landownerin the neighbouring county of Cardigan, 
was of opinion that the complaint as to a lack of evening 
accommodation in the farmhouses would not apply to his 
estate. Similar evidence was given by Mr. W, Saunders 
Davies, a tenant farmer, living in the parish of St. Dogmaels, 
in Pembrokeshire, and by another Pembrokeshire farmer, 
Mr. Jenkins, of Brimaston Hall. 

In most farmhouses of modern construction there is, 
besides a kitchen and a back kitchen, a room which is 
usually called the parlour, and that is commonly reserved 
for emergencies, such as when strangers call to whom the 
farmer or his wife wishes to show respect — for instance, 
ministers of religion. We have heard of the parlour being 
used for keeping corn or butter or other things for which the 
farmer has a lack of room. But it is more usual to find it 
furnished with a biggish table in the centre, with a show Bible 
on it and other books which are seldom disturbed, and with 
a number of chairs, each provided with its antimacassar. 
But. as motives of economy prevent the room having a fire 
regularly lit in it, a visitor finds it the least comfortable in 
the house. It is in fact a kind of old-fashioned drawing- 
room, ill-ventilated as a rule, and very musty, not to men- 
tion that practically it is in many cases a clear waste of so 
much available space, to the inconvenience of those whose 
occupations have to be carried on in the kitchen.^ 

We have received a great mass of evidence as to the 
labourers' cottages, and we may briefly say that they vary 
in kind from the older cottage — not yet extinct — which 
consists of a square box with two or three holes for a door, 
a window, and a chimney, to the more modern specimens 
described by Mr. Davies,- of Froodvale, as having each 
three rooms upstairs, and a parlour and kitchen on the 

1 Qu. 1 1, 818-70, 20,938, 21,960-8, 39,933. 
- Qi'- I9.594> 37.646- 
W.P. P P 



578 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

ground floor. Of the old ones Mr. Davies spoke as follows : 
" They are going out of fashion ; it is only the old-fashioned 
who live in them ; the young people do not go into them 
— there are not many of them." A much less encouraging 
view is expressed by Mr. Thos. Prichard in his answers to 
questions concerning certain cottages at Aberffraw, in 
Anglesey. He admitted that they were built long ago 
under old leases, and that they are very bad, but this he did 
not consider the worst feature of the case, as the following 
words ^ used by him go to show : " It is the people's habits : 
that is the difficulty. They keep ducks there. They are 
very fond of keeping ducks, and the floors are made of 
mud, and they will make duck-ponds inside their houses ; 
they feed the young ducks in those duck-ponds inside. 
No matter how good a cottage may be, if people will keep 
their poultry and their filth in the house in that way you 
do not know what to do with them. It is hopeless. Yet 
if I turned out a person because he had a duck-pond in his 
floor, I should be called I do not know what, — a regular 
brute." Then, on being asked whether a better class of 
cottages with wooden floors would not bring about a 
change for the better in the people's way of living, 
Mr. Prichard answered, " Well, I think they would make a 
hole in the floor : they would have a duck-pond." We 
agree to a certain extent with the witness ; for there is 
nothing more certain than that habits of cleanliness do not 
spring up in a day. People who have been used to live in 
dirt in bad cottages would hardly keep new and better 
cottages in a state of exemplary cleanliness and order. 
The disgraceful state of things described by Mr. Prichard 
as actual at Aberffraw, the headquarters in ancient 
times of the kings of Gwyned, will probably require 
several generations to wipe av/ay ; but in time, we 
doubt not, better cottages will render their inmates 

' Q"- 15,593-609. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 579 

disposed to lead better lives and cultivate habits of 
cleanliness. 

This last remark may be applied also to the housing of 
the farmers themselves, and will serve to explain why we 
have written at so great a length on the subject, and why 
we attach so much importance to it. If we summarise the 
evidence from which we have made these extracts, it comes 
to this : improvement is going on steadily in the dwelling- 
house accommodation of the farming population of Wales, 
but much remains to be done to give the farmers proper 
houses and to supply the number of passable cottages 
required for the labourers in certain districts. 

Now that we have passed under review the conditions 
under which the agricultural population exists as to diet and 
dress and dwellings, we propose to consider the kind of life 
which they ordinarily live. It has been stated more than 
once in the evidence collected by the Commission that the 
Welsh farmer leads a much harder life than the English 
farmer, and that it is not unusual for him to take a part 
himself in the work on the farm, as well as to superintend 
and direct the work of those whom he engages. The 
hours of his labourers have of late years been shortened, 
but hardly those of the servant-men who have the charge 
of the horses required for the tilling of the land ; and there 
has been no shortening of the service required of the female 
servants. As a rule they know little respite from early 
morning till late at night, and only one person has more 
than they to do and more care on her shoulders : that is 
their mistress, the farmer's wife. It is, however, needless 
to say that the pressure of work varies very greatly with 
the season of the year, and that the men of the household 
have their slack times and a good deal of leisure, not to 
mention one day regularly every week, namely, Sunday. 
Furthermore, the farmer or his wife, or both, devote most 
of one day to attending the nearest market for the disposal 

P p 2 



58o THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

of the farm produce and the purchase oi necessaries for the 
house. This has become in some cases so completely 
a habit, that many a farmer may be found regularly in the 
town on market-days whether he has any business to 
transact there or not. 

As a rule a farming neighbourhood is a model of peace 
and quietness, and when one of the inhabitants dies almost 
everybody hies to the funeral, as in all other Celtic lands. 
As an exception to the general peace one may perhaps 
mention^ the bickering and squabbling which arise between 
farmers or shepherds in the upland districts owing to the 
lack of fences to keep the sheep within their boundaries. 
In the case of some of the larger estates a better state of 
feeling has been established as one of the results of proper 
fences having been put up. As a rule, however, the country 
districts are comparatively free- from all serious crimes, but 
men are now and then brought before the magistrates for 
trespassing in quest of game or fish. Let us add that the 
Commission heard a complaint from Anglesey as to the 
roughness and recklessness of the farm labourers in that 
county. We allude to Mr. Thomas Prichard's evidence'^ 
where he says that the men's accommodation is not so 
good as the women's, and explains that " it is not entirely 
owing to the farmer's fault." For he proceeds to say : "The 
men are such ruffians, they will break or spoil anything in 
the shape of furniture which is put into their rooms. 
When Mr. Leufer Thomas went round we visited many 
sleeping-places,^ and it so happened that we saw a man 
doing mischief in one." When asked further to explain 
his meaning and to say whether he charged them with 

1 Qu. 70,158. 

2 For some criminal statistics in point, see the Report of the Welsh Land 
Commis,';ion, Appendix E., Tables XXXV., XXXVI. 

3 Qu. 19,462, 19,465. 

■* This was when Mr. L. Thomas was acting as Assistant Commissioner on 
the Labour Commission. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 581 

wilful damage, the answer was, " Certainly I do. They 
break things : if you put pots and pans and things of that 
kind into a room like that, you will find them all broken 
in the morning." We have no reason to doubt this 
evidence, and we cannot help noticing that it coincides 
with the bitterest complaint made to the Commission by 
labouring men as to the treatment which they, on the other 
hand, receive from the farmers. The evidence in point has 
already been mentioned, and we may add that one of the 
witnesses in question used words to the effect that the gulf 
between the farmers and their labourers is widening.^ 

One other question remains to be mentioned here, 
namely, that of immorality. This has long occupied the 
attention of every one who is interested in the improvement 
of the condition of the agricultural population, and of the 
morals of the country generally ; and, as far back as we can 
remember, the pulpits of all religious denominations in 
Wales have more or less persistently thundered forth 
against it. It has been repeatedly pointed out to us in the 
course of the evidence how inadequate accommodation 
in farmhouses and cottages must make against chastity 
and in favour of immorality. One of the witnesses, Dr. 
Rowlands, already cited concerning Lanaelhaiarn, in the 
Pwitheli union of Carnarvonshire, drew a comparison^ 
between the agricultural labourers and the quarrymen of 
Trefor, in the same parish, to the disadvantage of the 
former. He did not consider the moral state of the 
country very bad, though he admitted that illegitimacy did 
occur ; but he stated that to the afhliation cases brought 
before the magistrates at the petty sessions the parties 
were always farm labourers, and he used the following 
words : " I have not seen a single case brought before the 
magistrates between people that are working in the quarry. 
They live quite differently. I never saw a young man and 
1 Qu. 20,957-44. 2 Qu_ 11^691-3. 



582 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

young woman belonging to the quarry bring a case before 
the magistrates to Pwitheli since I have been in Lanael- 
haiarn. There are several hundreds of people living in 
Trefor, but I have not seen a single case there. In the 
farmhouses it is different ; therefore I conclude that there 
must be some mischief in the sleeping accommodation, and 
in the connection between them and the farmhouses." 

The Commission had evidence to somewhat the same 
effect,^ but based on facts of a more reassuring nature, 
from the late Rev. Sir T. H. Gresley Puleston, rector of 
Worthenbury and landowner in the detached piece of 
Flintshire. Asked whether he found the morals of the 
people better in consequence of the great improvements 
which he had mentioned as having been effected in their 
cottages, he answered, " Very considerably. I can an.swer 
both as a clergyman and as a magistrate. I could give 
very strong proofs of it, but I think perhaps it is unnecessary ; 
you will guess what I mean : there is a very considerable 
moral improvement in the district." 

The same view was also expressed by Mr. Thos. Davies,- 
tenant farmer from the parish of ILansawel, in Carmarthen- 
shire, who, though he ascribed the decrease of immorality 
in his neighbourhood chiefly to the teaching of religion, 
thought that proper accommodation for the men-servants 
would cause a material improvement in their morals. For, 
as he proceeded to say, "it would keep them at home" ; 
and he added the words, " I think that we ought to get an 
out-kitchen for them, so that they might have a fire and 
books, and they might read and write, and spend their 
leisure hours there." 

The charges brought against Wales on the score of 

immorality are doubtless based to a certain extent on the 

survival in some of the agricultural districts of the old 

custom of night courtship, which is not peculiar to Wales, 

' Qu. 57,064, 57,033, 57,135-45- - Qu- 40,020-5. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 583 

but occurs likewise among various European peoples as 
a survival from the life of the Middle Ages. It is 
frequently referred to in the poems of the fourteenth- 
century Welsh poet D. ab Gwilym, and it may be briefly 
described thus : the lover sallies forth at night and 
approaches the house where his fair one lives ; then he 
attracts her attention by gently tapping at her window. 
In some Welsh districts this is called cnocio or streicio, and 
in parts of Germany it is termed fenstern, as when Hans 
Sachs sings, — 

" Erstlich da ich brewtgam worden, 
\ya. fensiert ich schier alle nacht." 

A similar practice is implied in several of the songs of 
Robert Burns, such as that to Mary Morrison : — 

" O Mary, at thy window be, 

It is the wish'd, the trysted hour ! 
Those smiles and glances let me see, 
That make the miser's treasure poor." 

At the window, as in the case of Romeo and Juliet, a con- 
versation ensues, which sometimes ends in the admission of 
the lover into the house ; and in that case he and the young 
woman sit up together the greater part of the night. The 
charge of assuming a different position, for which the 
vocabulary of the English language provides the term 
bundling, is usually denied and resented as a calumny.^ 
We have already cited evidence to the effect that Wales 

1 By way of further references to night courtship we may mention that in old 
Norse literature the work which makes the most frequent allusion to the 
practice is probably " Kormak's Saga " (edited by Mobius, Halle, 1886, also 
published with a Latin translation, Copenhagen, 1832). For the German 
terms for it and references to it in German literature see Grimm's Dictionary 
under the words fensterii and kilt, which latter belongs to Switzerland. The 
Dutch colonists seem to have carried the custom to South Africa, where one 
finds it, for instance, in Olive Schreiner's "Story of an African Farm" (see 
Part II., chapter v., concerning " Tant' Sannie's Upsitting" ; also " Thoughts 
on South Africa," by the same writer, in the " Fortnightly Review," August 
1896, pp. 244-51). As to the custom in England see the volume entitled 
" Barthonrley, " by the Rev. Edward Hinchcliflfe (London, 1856), p. 139, 
where he touches on the " sitting up " for which he regarded Cheshire and 



584 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 



is improving in the matter of the morality of its agricultural 
population, and more could be cited if necessary. On the 
other hand, one witness, Mr. Thos. Prichard, whose 
evidence has already been referred to more than once, 
called our attention to statistics which show an increase of 
illegitimacy in certain parts of the Principality.^ His 
reference was chiefly to the following table given in 
Dr. Leffingwell's chapter entitled "A Study in Morals."- 
Of each thousand births, how many were illegitimate in 
the following registration districts of England and Wales 
during the periods mentioned below ? That is the question 
put, and the table supplies the answers as follows : — 



Name of Registration 
District. 


County, tkc 


Annual Average, 

1884-8 

(Five Years). 


1842. 


1893 


Longtown . 


Cumberland 


177 


172 


129 


Alston 


>> 


132 


125 


99 


Chin .... 


Shropshire . 


122 


109 


76 


Rhayader . 


South Wales 


121 


145 


85 


Brampton . 


Cumberland 


117 


172 


121 


PwHheli . 


Nortli Wales 


114 


76 


93 


LanfyrHn . 


,, ,, ■ 


103 


80 


86 


Church Stretton 


Shropshire . 


q8 


109 


105 


Down ham . 


Norfolk 


96 


86 


91 


Docking . 


M 


96 


104 


90 


Bromyard . 


Hereford 


96 


125 


79 


Machynlleth 


North Wales 


93 


80 


92 


Anglesey . 


,, ), • 


89 


78 


94 


Newtown . 


,, >) . 


95 


103 


67 


Walsingham 


Norfolk 


83 


104 


88 


All England . 




47 


67 


42 



parts of the counties bordering on it as enjoying an unenviable notoriety. In 
the valley of the Thames, in the neighbourhood, for instance, of Henley, it 
appears to be known as "courting on the bed." An early instance of 
"bundling" is mentioned by Chrestien de Troyes in his poem the " Conte du 
Graal " ; the lines in point are quoted in Nutt's "Studies in the Legend of the 
Holy Grail," p. 135. See also Rhys's "Arthurian Legend," p. 175, and Thomas 
Wright's " Womankind in Western Europe from the Earliest Times to the 
Seventeenth Century," for instance, pp. 166-8. 

' Qu. 120,0,0-210. 

- The title of the book is "Illegitimacy and the Influence of Seasons upon 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 585 

From this it will be seen that, as in certain districts in 
Cumberland and Shropshire, there has been up to 1888 an 
increase in illegitimacy in certain districts in North Wales, 
namely, Anglesey, the Pwllheli district of Carnarvonshire, 
and the two districts of Lanfyttin and Machynlleth, in Mont- 
gomeryshire, at the same time that there has been a decrease 
in the average for the whole of England and Wales. We 
are sorry that for the purposes of comparison we have not 
been able to procure the figures for all the Welsh districts, 
but those we have given show that, though the worst Welsh 
spots are not so bad as the worst English ones, there is 
plenty of room for improvement still. 

We think it right, however, to say that we do not believe 
that the increase of immorality in the Welsh districts in 
question has been as great as represented in this table 
between the years 1842 and 1888, for we suspect that the 
numbers for 1842 are too low, in consequence of the con- 
cealment of illegitimate births and neglect on the part of 
the registrars to do their duty conscientiously. So we are 
glad to be able to add the figures for the year 1893, from 
which it will be seen that Welsh illegitimacy is decreasing, 
except in Anglesey. 

Taking a somewhat wider view of the question, living 
men of ordinary habits of observation who have lived in 
the Principality can testify that ideas of chastity have made 
great progress within their memory. Thus it was far more 
common in the forties and the fifties for farmers' daughters 
to be married at last in a hurry than it is now, and we are 
inclined to ascribe the improvement more to the spread of 
education' than to the influence of the pulpit.^ In such 

Conduct : Two Studies in Demography," by Albert Leffiagwell, M.D. (London, 
1892). The above table is given at p. 33 ; and we have added to it the figures 
for the year 1893. 

' We cannot help suspecting that the influence of the pulpit is in some 
measure neutralised l>y a wide-spread acquaintance with the biography of 
certain Old Testament worthies whose ideas of morality, if they had any, can 



586 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

matters abstract notions of virtue and vice play a far lesser 
role than the ever-present question, " Is it respectable ? " 
The farmers' daughters who were sent from home to school 
learned that the old fashion to which we have alluded was 
disgraceful, and that it was regarded so by educated people. 
So they set their faces against it when they returned home. 
In time the conduct of the better behaved of the farmers' 
daughters would tend steadily to establish a better fashion 
among the maid-servants. We may here remark that it 
would not only give the latter a much-needed interval for 
recreation, but also conduce to a higher state of morality, 
if they could be allotted, each in her turn, an afternoon a 
week for visiting their friends, as is usually done in the case 
of women in domestic service in the towns. At any rate, this 
might be done, probably without any serious inconvenience, 
during seasons of the year when there is no great pressure 
of work at the farmer's home. In any case we feel con- 
fident that the improvement proceeding in the housing of 
the agricultural population and the spread of education 
cannot fail to accelerate the improvement in morals to 
which we allude, and to extend it in the near future to the 
most remote country districts. 

The same influences make in manifold ways for temper- 
ance : for instance, it is now regarded among the agri- 
cultural population of Wales a disgrace to be found 
drunk. The Commission did not ask many questions as 
to drunkenness in the rural districts. But they noticed 
that every farmer and every labourer who came to give 
evidence was sober at the time, a statement which they 
could not make of another class of witnesses who came 
before them. As to the farm labourers and men-servants in 
particular, we have very little more to say, except that it is 

only be referred to a comparatively low level ol civilisation — a level, however, 
above which, at any rate in the matter of the sexes, the East has never shown 
any great hurry to rise very much. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY 587 

expected that, with more adequate accommodation for 
their passing their evenings at home, they will frequent 
the public-houses less. Where the accommodation is 
inadequate they have to go out somewhere, and those who 
cannot find room in the kitchen naturally gravitate to the 
public-houses, where they are certain to find a welcome, 
and to hear the gossip of the countryside. Some evidence 
touching on this point we have already given whilst dealing 
with the question of dwelling-houses, so we do not think it 
necessary to produce it here. Thanks to the pulpit and 
the advocates of total abstinence, it would be difficult, as 
regards temperance and sobriety, to exaggerate the change 
which has taken place for the better in Wales within the 
last fifty years. And were we to go back to remoter 
generations, we might illustrate the improvement by refer- 
ences to the jest-books of the early Tudor period, where 
one finds the bibulous propensities of Welshmen frequently 
satirised. Take, for example, Skelton's " Merye Tales," 
the burden of one of which is " How the Welshman dyd 
desyre Skelton to ayde hym in hys sute to the kynge for a 
patent to sell drynke."^ We have possibly a survival of 
this notion of the Welsh character in the fiction, stereotyped 
in English literature of a certain order, that Welshmen 
never mention cwrw, " beer," without calling it cwriv da, 
"good beer," a combination of words resented by the 
Welsh-speaking Cymro of the present day, as he construes 
it, rightly or wrongly, to involve the insinuation that the 
whole people regard beer as the one thing good and 
needful. 

No survey of the life of the Welsh farmer would be 
complete without some account of the great place which 
religion and religious observances occupy in it. His 

^ This tale is to be found in Hazlitt's "Old English Jest-books " (London, 
1864), vol. ii., pp. 7-9, and it is reproduced in Thomas Wright's " History of 
Caricature and Grotesque" {London, 1875), p. 239. 



588 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

Sunday is not a day of rest except in so far as a change 
of occupation answers the purpose of rest. In the morning 
he and as many of his household as can be spared from 
the farm go to a service, mostly a sermon, at the chapel 
which they attend. If the distance is not too great they 
return home for dinner, and most of them attend the 
Sunday School in the afternoon. They come home again, 
and go back in the evening for another service at their 
chapel. These three meetings partake of the nature of 
fixtures not only at the dissenting chapel, but also at the 
parish church. To these fixtures must be added various 
subsidiary meetings, such as those for musical practice or 
for catechising the young, so that even a farmer who is 
not an elder ^ or the bearer of any other office at his chapel 
has the hours of Sunday pretty strictly allotted. Besides 
Sunday there are meetings at the chapel in the evening on 
week-days. One of these, called the Ssiet,- occupies at 
least one evening of every week ; it is confined to com- 
municants and their children. Another evening there may 
be a prayer- meeting : occasionally there is a sermon, and 
sometimes a lecture or a musical practice, not to mention 
that in a Welsh-speaking district there usually exists a 
literary society, which meets regularly during the winter 
months. In fact, in a fairly populous neighbourhood there 
are chapel meetings of one kind or another held on most of 
the evenings of the week, but where the population is sparse 
and scattered the week-day meetings are not so numerous. 

^ The Welsh word is hlaenor, which Uterally means a leader ; hut the growth 
of ecclesiastical ideas is all in favour of diacomis, which is rapidly gaining 
ground in the form o^ diacon, with the un-Welsh pronunciation oi deiacon. 

- It is needless to say that this word siiet, pronounced in GwynecJ seiat, 
is only an abbreviation of the English word society. In fact, the elders have 
till lately given the preference to longer forms of the word, namely syseieli, 
syse/et, and sSieti, which are now nearly obsolete. Lastly, the English origin 
of the name suijgests that the institution which it represents may possibly 
be of English (jrigin likewise, though it has acquired a thoroughly Welsli 
character . 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 589 

With regard to the Sei'et, one may say that it undertakes 
the religious initiation of the children. It reviews the 
sermons of the previous Sunday, eHcits the religious 
experiences of the members, strengthens the weak- 
kneed, admonishes the erring, and in due time expels 
those whose conduct is held to be a scandal to the 
community. 

The vS>/^/, comprising every church member, is, in a word, 
a miniature democracy, with the power residing in the elders 
and the other communicants, and not in the minister, 
whose presence, though usual, is not essential to the 
working of the system. Where there is a minister he is 
the mouthpiece of the Seiet, not its ruler. This is, roughly 
speaking, and in so far as concerns questions not requiring 
the attention of the denomination on a larger scale, the 
machinery of Calvinistic Methodism, an organisation which 
is to be traced back to the great religious awakening of the 
eighteenth century as inspired by the teaching of the Puritan 
fathers and guided by Whitfield rather than by Wesley, 
on the points where those reformers differed. It is a 
denomination of Welsh origin, and not a part of an 
organisation with its centre of gravity in England or 
Scotland. So its administrative work and the business of 
its chief assemblies are conducted in the vernacular ; and 
it has the distinction of being the only organisation cover- 
ing the whole of the Principality and embracing Welsh 
Churches in many of the towns of England, that has 
endured without breach of continuity or disruption for 
about a century and a half 

Its Calvinism is extensively shared by the two Non- 
conformist denominations of older standing in the Princi- 
pality, namely, the Independents or Congregationalists 
and the Baptists, both of which have by degrees adopted 
to a large extent the organisation of Calvinistic Method- 
ism by the establishment of county unions and national 



590 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

unions of their Churches in Wales. ^ In other words, 
the Church polity of the three great denominations- 
to which the overwhelming majority of Welsh Non- 
conformists belong, is virtually the same, and almost 
the precise antithesis of the polity of the Established 
Church, where the clergyman is practically responsible for 
everything. We do not feel called upon to estimate the 
respective merits of the two systems, but we notice with a 
certain amount of curiosity that most of the reforms 
mooted of late years by clergymen of the Established 
Church have as their object the securing of the more 
systematic and active co-operation of the lay element. It is 
needless also to mention what opportunities their chapels 
afford Welsh Dissenters of learning the art of self-govern- 
ment, and of successfully managing their finances ; and 
as this lesson has been more and more thoroughly 
learnt it is but natural to find that divisions and internal 
feuds have been far less rife in Welsh religious communities 
of late years than they used to be formerly. On the whole 
we think that the tone of the following passage in the 
evidence of Mr. Thomas E. Ellis,^ the parliamentary 
representative of the county of Merioneth, is not pitched 
too high : " The people in these Welsh villages have learnt 
during the last 150 years the most valuable lessons of self- 
government. Their chapels have been to them a splendid 
education in self-government ; they manage these chapels 
and manage their organisations with admirable skill and 
success." 

Those who are pleased to generalise on the supposed 
characteristics of different races hold it as an axiom that 

1 On this and kindred questions see a suggestive letter by W. E. in the 
"British Weekly" for September 15th, 1892 (p. 330). 

- We have said nothing of the Wesleyan Methodists, for they are not only 
numerically less important than the three denominations mentioned, but they 
are the same in Wales as in England. 

•' Qii. 17,065 ; see also footnote 3 at p. 646 of the Report. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 591 

the Celt is more impulsive and imaginative than the 
Teuton ; and we should perhaps be safe in assuming that 
the Welsh, for reasons which cannot be examined here, 
participate in this greater impulsiveness and liveliness of 
imagination. At any rate the assumption of such liveli- 
ness of imagination would help one to account for the 
comparative rarity of suicide among them, and also for 
certain phenomena observed in the sphere of religion in 
Wales. We allude, in the first place, to the Diwygiad^ or 
religious revival, which every now and then comes over the 
Principality. The last of any magnitude spent its force 
about the beginning of the sixties. Its most conspicuous 
feature was great excitement at religious assemblages, men 
and women, with their emotions intensified by the mag- 
netic sympathy of numbers, being moved either to exceed- 
ing ecstacy under a vivid realisation of the glory of " things 
invisible," or to an uncontrollable terror by a discovery of 
their " lost condition." They had, as it were, in full prospect 
one or other of the spheres of Dante's "DivinaCommedia." 
Regarded from the point of view of the conduct of those 
concerned, it may be mentioned that men who criticised 
the Diwygiad from without sometimes alleged that it was 
mere religious hysterics, that it led to certain wholesome 
conventionalities being forgotten, and even to a laxity of 
morals among people of an unstable disposition. But when 
the spiritual storm had blown over it was found that it had 
done more good on the whole than harm. This was proved 
in most districts by the beginning of a new life by men who 
had been till then given to habits of intemperance and to 
the spending of their leisure hours in harvesting sorrow for 
their families. It is but right to add that most of them 
are believed to have withstood all temptation to fall back 
into their old ways.^ We cannot help perceiving that 

' Since these words were written our attention has been called to some 
eloquent passages dealing with the Welsh pulpit in Henry Richard's "Letters 



592 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

what we have said of the Diivygiad may appear to recall 
the religious services of the Salvation Army ; and at first 
sight the comparison would seem a fair one to make. At 
any rate it might be so if one could conceive the spontaneity 
of the Welsh meetings being subjected to system, and the 
ebullitions of religious fervency which characterised them 
being made chronic. But it is a fact of some relevancy 
here that the Salvation Army, with its Saxon methods, 
has never met with any conspicuous success among the 
Celts either in Wales or elsewhere. 

We have already hinted that the Welsh are well endowed 
in the matter of imagination and fancy. This faculty has 
sometimes played a great role when it was found combined 
with a certain kind of faith. The faith we mean is that 
which has sustained nations like the Jews in their expecta- 
tion of a Messiah to come, or at one time inspired the 
Spaniards with thebelief that the Cid Rodrigo was to return 
to restore the glories of Castile ; and other instances might 
be mentioned. From this combination there sprang up 
among the Brythons of yore a spirit of romance which 
held the Europe of the Middle Ages bound, as it were, 
under a spell. There is no great literature of the Continent 
which does not betray the influence of the Brythonic 
hero Arthur, whom his people as late as the time of 
Henry II. expected to see returning from the isle of 
Avatton hale and strong and longing to lead his men and 
countrymen to triumph over the foe and the oppressor. 
So real was this sanguine expectation that it is supposed 
to have counted with the English king as one of the 
forces which he had to quell in order to obtain quiet from 
the Welsh. So the monks of Glastonbury proceeded to 

and Essays on Wales" (London, 1884), })p. 26-30. Alluding lo the religious 
revivals which we have in view, Mr. Richard gives his opinion of them as 
follows: — "With some serious drawbacks, no one acquainted with the inner 
life of the country can doubt that they have been of incalculable value to 
Wales." 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESEN2 DAY. 593 

discover there the coffin of Arthur, his wife and his son. 
This was to convince the Welsh of the unreasonableness 
of their reckoning on the return of Arthur, who had been 
dead some six hundred years The Welsh, however, went 
on believing here and there in the eventual return of 
Arthur ; and in modern times a shepherd is now and then 
related to have chanced on a cave where Arthur's Men 
are sleeping in the midst of untold treasure, awaiting the 
signal for their sallying forth to battle. This is located in 
various spots in Wales, as also in the Eildon hills, near 
Melrose, in South Scotland. Similar expectations have 
been connected in Ireland with the names of several of 
the heroes of local stories current in that country. Take, 
for instance. The O'Donoghue, who is supposed to be 
sleeping with eyes and ears open beneath the lakes of 
Killarney till called forth to right the wrongs of Erin, or 
the unnamed king who sleeps among his host of mighty 
spearmen in the stronghold of Greenan-Ely, in the high- 
lands of Donegal, awaiting the peal of destiny to summon 
him and his men to fight for their country. 

Nor was Arthur the only hero of the Brythons who was 
expected to return from the other world. One gathers from 
certain passages in the thirteenth-century manuscript of the 
poetry associated with the name of Taliessin that a similar 
expectation once attached to Cadwaladr, sometimes called 
the Blessed, the last king of the Brythons to contest the 
lordship over what is now the north of England with the 
Angles of Deira and Bernicia in the latter part of the 
seventh century. Indeed, there is reason to think that 
this sort of superstition did not wholly die out in certain 
parts of the Principality till, so to say, the other day. 
The Rev. Benjamin Williams, a clergyman and Welsh 
antiquary who has not been dead many years, contributed 
to the "Brython" for 1858 an article in which he alluded 
to a certain Owain Lawgoch, " Ovvain of the Red Hand." 

W.P. Q Q 



594 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

Popular ima'^jination, we learn, represented Owain Lawgoch 
as a hero expected to return eventually to reign over 
Britain. In the meanwhile he was by some supposed to 
be biding his time in foreign lands, and by others to be 
slumbering in a treasure cave, where certain intruders 
once on a time beheld him, a man of seven foot in stature, 
sitting in an ancient chair with his head resting on his left 
hand, while the other, the red hand, grasped a mighty 
sword of state which had come down to him as an official 
heirloom from the ancient kings of Britain. This Owain 
Lawgoch was the subject of ballads sung at Welsh fairs, 
and Mr. Williams quotes the following couplet : — 

Yr Owen hwn yu> HarriW Nawfed, " This Owain is Henry the Ninth, 
Syd yn trigo ^ngwlad eslronied.^ Wiio tarries in a foreign land." 

Mr. Williams's statement is, that this ''is sometimes 
heard sung" — '' clyivir canu ■weit/nan'' — which means that 
he or some of his friends had heard it sung not long before 
the time of his writing. Now it turns out that Owain 
Lawgoch was a historical man : he lived, as we have found 
(pp. 343 — 4), in the time of Edward III. and his son, the 
Black Prince. His deeds of valour in the French wars fill 
not a few of the pages of Froissart. 

The faith and fancy which combined to waft across five 
centuries and more the echo of Owain Lawgoch's name 
to our time will help one to understand a phenomenon 
touched upon in the evidence ; we mean the success which 

' Since the above was written we have learned from a Welsh scholar, the 
Rev. John Fisher, of Ruthin, that this comes from a ballad in a twopenny 
book published at Carmarthen in 1847, entitled Prophwydoliaeth Myi-din 
Wyitt, " The Prophecy of Merlin the Wild." The booklet contains two poems 
or ballads, both of which speak of Owain Lawgoch : the couplet cited occurs inthe 
first of the poems, while the second, which is similar, closes with the date of 
the year 1668 in rhyme. Mr. Fisher has never heard either ballad sung, but there 
are, he says, old people still living in his native Valley of the Lwchwr who 
could repeat scraps here and there of both ballads. We are indebted to Mr. 
Fisher also for calling our attention to Froissart's account of Owain, and foi 
Other valuable hints. S^e above, p. 343. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 595 

at one time used to attend the efforts of Mormon 
missionaries among the people of certain parts of Wales. 
It appears to have been most remarkable in the mining 
districts of South Wales, but it now and then involved 
the inhabitants of rural districts, such, for example, as the 
village of St. Bride's Major, in the south of Glamorgan- 
shire, mentioned by Mr. J. M. Randall, one of the agents 
engaged in the management of Lord Dunraven's Welsh 
estates. We refer to the following passage : ^ " You say 
about forty years ago there was a large exodus of the 
working classes from your district .-*" — "Yes, particularly 
from the village of St. Bride's Major, There was a large 
exodus to Salt Lake City. I think they went to join the 
Mormons, on religious grounds." 

Now there were two things in the preachings of the 
Mormon missioners which were calculated particularly to 
attract the ignorant in Wales, namely, the imminent 
approach of the end of the world and the coming of Christ 
in the flesh to reign with His saints in a temporal kingdom 
in the West. The latter doctrine belonged to an order 
of ideas which we have shown to have been far from 
unfamiliar among the Brythons and other nations. 
Probably, however, a certain class of people was still more 
influenced by an apprehension of the immediate approach 
of the end of the world ; for even now the crazes on this 
subject which are propagated from time to time by a 
certain type of English divines, whose favourite study 
seems to be the Apocalypse and the Prophet Daniel, are 
apt to command, perhaps, a more anxious hearing in 
Wales than they usually obtain in England. And in the 
earlier fifties apprehension and fear were helped by the 
uneasiness created by the Crimean war, and it was in 
some measure prolonged by the strange appearance some- 
what later of Donati's Comet. Many timid people there 
' Qu. 5,625 — 6 : see also p. 53 of the Repori. 

QQ2 



596 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

undoubtedly were who connected these things with the events 
set forth in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Revelation, 
including among them the stealthy coming of Christ and 
the gathering together of mighty hosts to Armageddon. 
These and other reasons of the same nature seem to have 
made Wales a favourable arena for the activity of the 
Mormons for a time, and the success which attended that 
activity had the effect of giving the Welsh the reputation 
of being a very superstitious people. A great change, 
however, has come over the country within the last thirty 
years, as any one can testify who attempts nowadays to 
collect folklore in the Principality. His task has become 
an exceedingly difficult one so far as regards the Welsh 
men and women of the present day, for not only have they 
ceased to give any credence to the stories and legends 
of the past, but they go so far as only to own with 
reluctance to having ever heard them. In fact, such folklore 
is rapidly passing into oblivion as far as concerns the 
rustic of the type that formerly revelled in it ; and so 
would the creed of the Latter-day Saints too but for its 
apostles continuing to haunt the Principality. Some have 
been seen and heard preaching there the peculiar tenets 
of that creed within the last four or five years ; but the 
success of earlier days appears to have deserted their 
ministry, leaving it to interest solely the student of psycho- 
logical pathology. 

A word must now be said as to the opportunities for 
recreation and the means of improvement within the reach 
of the agricultural population. Few country places have 
any ground set apart for recreation and athletic exercise, 
and even where ground had been reserved for that purpose 
under the Acts of Parliament authorising the enclosure of 
common land, the Commission usually found that it was 
little used, or not at all.^ The growth of interest in such 
' Qu. 543,?/ 5^./., 643-695. 



'RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 597 

games as that of cricket and of football belongs chiefly 
to the younger part of the population of the towns and 
mining centres, though football is by no means a new 
game in the Principality. It used to be a very popular 
pastime prior to the Nonconformist revival, but as the 
principal day for it used to be Sunday it was put down 
with stern severity by all the Nonconformists, who held 
decided Sabbatarian views. In Catholic times there were 
numerous saints' days and festivals on which the game 
might be played, but as these holidays have nearly all 
ceased to be observed and Sunday is out of the question, 
football mostly ceased in the country districts. There is, 
however, we think another and a deeper reason why 
neither football nor any other athletic exercise is regularly 
practised in country places, and that is the natural lack of 
inclination to further physical effort on the part of men 
who have to work through a long day in the open air- 
Recreation to suit them must, we think, partake largely of 
the nature of cessation from serious bodily exertion ; they 
want some change of occupation which involves rest for 
the limbs wearied by the day's toil. In other words, they 
may be expected to prefer something of the nature of 
reading, singing, chatting together, playing some easy 
game of the nature of chess, or at most a game of quoits ; 
not to mention that the hours of labour of the farmer and 
his servants make it impossible that their recreation should 
be found for them out of doors, at least for a considerable 
portion of the year. 

In winter the farmers and their families have long 
evenings at their disposal, and it is interesting to notice 
how they spend them. A few generations ago the house- 
hold of an upland farmer on the Cardiganshire side of 
Plinlimmon would sit round a good peat fire ; some of the 
women would take up their knitting, some would peel 
rushes for rushlights, a servant-man would carve a wooden 



598 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

spoon or a ladle, and somebody would read to the com- 
pany. When they grew tired of that, somebody would 
relate a story or propound riddles ; and so things went on 
till all retired to rest. Somewhat the same domesticity 
is suggested by the evidence of Mr. W. L. Williams, who, 
speaking of Carmarthenshire, said : ^ " I remember the time 
when servants had a kind of domestic competition on the 
hearth as to who could make the best wooden spoon or 
basket, or string onions. There is now nothing of the 
kind : the servants are gradually losing their character as 
members of the family, and do not remain as much in the 
farm kitchen. They have little or no domestic life." At 
Bedgelert and other places in the Snowdon district the 
neighbours used to spend their evenings in one another's 
houses on what they termed " knitting nights," when they 
used to knit and entertain one another with stories about 
fairies, bogies, or any other popular subject.- In the 
parish of Lanaelhaiarn, in Arfon, an evening of that 
description used to be called a pilnos or " xwsh-pceling 
night," though we read of the occupation of the company 
gathered together being rather the dressing of hemp and 
the carding of wool. But the entertainment consisted 
chiefly in telling stories, a fact which need surprise no one 
ii a district which forms the classical ground of the old- 
world tales of the " Mabinogion " and has a topography that 
re-echoes the names of the goddess Don's descendants.^ 
In Merionethshire, Bala and its neighbourhood were 
formerly celebrated for the trade done in them in woollen 
stockings, and Pennant, alluding to what he terms a 
" knitting assembly " or CymortJi Givaii, uses the following 

' Qu. 37,829. 

- See " Y Cymmrodor," vol. v., pp. 49, 50. 

^ Ibid., vol. vi., p. 169. See also pp. 162 — 165, from which it appears that 
it is in this part of Arfon alone that the name Don has survived in the language 
of the hearth : elsewhere it has been obtained from books, as proved by its 
being pronounced Don or Donn and treated as a masculine. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 599 

words :^ "During winter the females, through love of 
society, often assemble at one another's houses to knit ; 
sit round a fire, and listen to some old tale, or to some 
ancient song, or the sound of a harp." 

The happy gathering of the family round the winter fire 
continues in most countrysides much as in years gone by, 
except on the one hand that the comforts now enjoyed are 
frequently greater, and that on the other the charmed 
circle is apt in our day to be somewhat encroached upon 
by the frequency of evening meetings at the chapel, unless 
that happens to be situated at too great a distance to be 
often attended. In any case this raises the question of 
the extent of the accommodation afforded by the farm- 
house for those who would like to spend their evenings at 
home, but we have already considered it at some length. 
So we revert to Mr. W. L. Williams's words to the effect 
that for some reason or other the servant-men tend, as 
stated by him, to consider themselves or to be considered 
by their employers less intimately members of the family 
nowadays than they did formerly. This forms a third 
exception to our general statement, and it is to be 
regretted, we think, on the ground of morality and 
temperance, and of honest service ; but it is a tendency 
which is growing and likely to grow the more completely 
labour becomes, like other commodities, ruled by the 
highest bid without any predilection for person or place. 
So the question of resorts and recreations in country 
villages must become a more and more pressing one. The 
labourers and servant-men who quit the farm kitchen 
cannot all be accommodated in the smithy or the shoe- 
maker's workshop ; and all are agreed that it is not 
desirable that they should make a habit of frequenting 
the village public. 

The Commission took some evidence on this point, 

^ Pennant's " Tours in Wales," ii., pp. 210, 211, of the edition of 1810. 



6oo THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

and beginning with the least ambitious order of suggestions 
made to them, we quote first the views of Mr. J. M. 
Prichard, farmer, magistrate, and barrister-at-law, who 
came before them at Langefni, and spoke as follows:^ 
" Now Lady Reade has shown an example which I 
should very much like to see Class A landlords who are 
able to afford it, follow. She had three public-houses 
at Lanfaethlu, and, being a temperance reformer, she 
did away with two licences. She thought that one was 
quite enough, and that is, I think, the policy which 
is followed now. She did it without appealing to us 
as magistrates at all. She dropped these two licences ; 
she wanted to see less drink in the villages. The only 
result of dropping these two licences was to create more 
drinking. The three houses that were there before did 
not pay at all ; you might have bought both licences for 
lOO/, each or 50/., but when there was only one public- 
house, that house was immediately enlarged and made 
very comfortable and nice ; three or four parlours were 
added, and the result is, there is more business done at 
that one than was ever done at the three. That, I 
suppose, did not suit Lady Reade ; she naturally did not 
like to see so much drinking in the neighbourhood, so 
near by, she built a coffee-house, which has been a very 
great success. I think if the landlords would build more 
of those — not make an attempt at once to do away with 
the few places that the workmen have to sit down in, but 
first of all build coffee-houses, or build them some places of 
entertainment, where they can enjoy themselves of an 
evening, and afterwards petition the magistrates to do 
away with the licences, that would be a good policy." 

Mr. Priciiard in dealing further with this subject instanced 
ILanfachreth, Bodedern, and Trefor as centres where places 
of entertainment might prove a great boon to that part 
' Qu. 18,623, 18,624. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 6oi 

of the country, and he thought it best to entrust the 
establishing of them to the County Council. A little later 
this view was advocated by Mr. S. Hughes/ the chairman 
of the County Council himself, who, however, in repre- 
senting the desirability of having places for refreshments 
in every country village, gave some prominence to the 
intellectual requirements of the persons concerned : " I 
think there should be some sort of temperance house 
there," he said, " with periodicals and some books." 

This brings us to the evidence about reading-rooms. 
As regards the majority of country districts, it was simply 
negative : there are none. But in one instance a witness 
went further, namely, Mr. William Edwards,- Lecturer on 
Agriculture under the Cheshire County Council, formerly 
Secretary to the Anglesey Farmers' Society, and otherwise 
intimately acquainted with that county. After dwelling 
in severe terms on the lack of a reading-room or any 
recreation-ground at the village, for instance, of Lanfair, 
in Anglesey, and the responsibility of the neighbouring 
landowners in the matter, he drew a contrast between that 
county and Cheshire in the following terms : " During the 
last fortnight I have been in Cheshire, I could not help 
noticing that there was a very vast amount of difference 
there in the small villages, as compared to ours." He 
went on to say : " In almost every small village you go to, 
there is a public room, all the papers come there, there are 
science classes and that sort of thing, and lectures are 
given on all conceivable subjects." 

On the other side we feel bound to quote the evidence 
of Lord Stanley of Alderley, who owns land both in 
Anglesey and Cheshire : we refer to the following passage 
Question 19,831. — " Have you done anything in the way 
of encouraging libraries in the villages, in order to prevent 
the prowling around the neighbourhood by the farm boys 
' Qu. 21,971 — 2. ^ Qu. 4,3,085 — 6. 



6o2 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

at night ? " — " Yes, I have. I did one thing, and tried to do 
another. I have made a beginning with a h'brary of Welsh 
books in my principal farm at Bodewryd ; it is in the 
middle of the property I have there. Then at Bodedern 
I heard that Archdeacon Wynne Jones, when he was the 
owner, had attempted to establish a reading-room, and 
that the project had fallen through. I offered to build an 
additional room, either as a school class-room, or simply 
as a reading-room adjoining the school at Bodedern. The 
schoolmaster was perfectly willing to keep it open at night, 
and to receive people there for amusing themselves, for 
reading and so on ; but although I have offered to provide 
the building, I have not been able to get further than 
that. They have not yet said that anybody would be 
glad to have it, nor made any proposal to me as to which 
spot the building should stand on." 

We have dwelt so long on the case of Anglesey partly 
because it is a typically agricultural county, and partly 
because the Anglesey evidence on this question happens to 
be explicit and concrete. But the same apparent lack of 
intellectual interest, which is suggested by Lord Stanley's 
words cited above, meets us elsewhere. In some instances 
where reading-rooms have been in existence they are not 
conspicuously successful, and in others they have failed 
altogether. As regards the Anglesey instances, his Lord- 
ship does not offer any explanation why his generosity 
was not more appreciated either at Bodedern or Bodewryd ; 
and we turn to another part of the Principality and cite 
a case which is explained by the witness dealing with it, 
namely, Miss Kate Jenkins. She spoke, as already stated, 
of the parish of Langadock, in the Vale of the Towy, and 
used the following words :^ " I do not think the right 
people take it [the reading-room movement] up, or if they 
do they do not take it up in the right way. We had a 

1 Qu. 38,053. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 603 

reading-room at Langadock. I did not go to it at all ; 
I happened to be away from home at the time, but when 
I came back I found it was not a success. The farmers' 
sons did not go there, only just the Church people went. 
I asked them why they did not attend, and told them it 
was very bigoted. They said instead of forming a com- 
mittee and getting all the farmers together in that way, 
which would be self-government by the people, the vicar 
arranged everything, and when everything was finished he 
called a committee together. It was very kind of him 
and I have no doubt he wanted to do it, but it was all 
finished at that time, and when the people came they 
found inside the books, ' St. Cadog's Church Lending 
Library^' and the Nonconformists (of course foolishly) took 
umbrage and never came near, or very few of them. It is 
now dead because nobody goes there." 

The habit of turning into a reading-room to seek infor- 
mation or mental improvement has probably got to grow 
among the rural population, and to do so under the 
fostering influence of careful and protracted cultivation. 
This is the first point to be considered in any attempt to 
account for the failure of reading-rooms in country villages. 
But reasons of the kind assigned by Miss Jenkins in the 
case cited by her are not imaginary : they constitute a 
vera cmisa. Any undertaking which labours under the 
least suspicion of aiming at proselytising or of being an 
act of patronising, whether on the part of the Church of 
England or any dissenting body, of noblemen or wealthy 
commoners, is in the present temper of the Welsh people 
doomed to certain failure. In the long run the people 
will not have it, even though that attitude should expose 
them to the charge of indifference or ingratitude. We 
cannot help referring here to the instances of reading-rooms 
mentioned in the evidence^ of Mr. Price of Rhiwlas, given 

^ Qu. 18,492. 



6o4 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

in the course of one of the Commissioners' sittings at Bala. 
They do credit to the generosity of those who originated 
them and carried them on, in some cases with considerable 
success ; but we cannot admit that the references to them 
successfully rebut, as they were intended to do, the follow- 
ing passage in the evidence of Mr. Thomas E. Ellis :^ 
'' Now these figures speak for themselves. The occupiers 
pay the land tax, the poor, public health, education, high- 
way, police, and county rates, yet in Merioneth, where 
140,335/. was paid as rent in 1889 — 90, the county is ill- 
provided with public institutions. In a land and among 
a peasantry singularly devoted to social converse there is 
not a public village hall — keenly fond of reading, there is 
not a public library. In a changeable climate mainly damp 
and with homes small and confined there is not a single 
hospital or public dispensary. In a land whose people are 
singularly attached to the soil and its associations the 
dwellings of peasants and cottagers are allowed to fall to ruin. 
I venture to think this is too severe a strain and cannot last." 
Mr. Ellis maintained his position and explained, as 
follows, the meaning which he attached to his words : 
' When I say a public village hall, I mean not a couple of 
rooms, which may be let with or without rent for a time 
and at the will of the landowner or of a resident, but a 
building with rooms and conveniences which is the pro- 
perty of a parish or of a village. Of such a building I believe 
there is not a single instance in the county of Merioneth." 
Reviewing Mr. Price of Rhiwlas' instances, he spoke of one 
of them as follows : " The Lanbedr room and hall is a 
very admirable one, and does a very great deal of good, 
but the hall is the property of Mr. Pope, and with great 
generosity he has allowed these rooms, I think, to be 
used freely by the public. But it is not the property of 
Lanbedr ; and if Mr. Pope went away from the district I 
' Qu. 16,918, 18,508—10. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 605 

do not believe there is any guarantee except the guarantee 
of his generosity that would leave it as a public institution. 
It is in no sense the public library of Lanbedr." Further 
on he speaks of the instances adduced from Corwen and 
Dolgeitey as little spasmodic attempts made by small groups 
of individuals in those two towns. " There is no continuity 
whatsoever," he added, " about these reading-rooms, and 
they are in no sense public libraries." Of a reading-room 
at Lanuwchttyn he said : " It was started by getting one 
or two rooms in a house, and a certain number of books 
was placed there, but they were the mere surplusage of 
other libraries, and a good deal of the literature was about 
such subjects as the Lost Ten Tribes." Lastly, with 
regard to a portion of the old barrack utilised at Bala as 
a reading-room, and supported by subscriptions, his words 
were : " They have two or three comfortable rooms, so far 
as they go. There is a little room which is called a library, 
but I do not believe the Commission would give more than 
about 5/., if they would give 5/., for the whole stock of 
books that are there. They are antiquated, and the 
majority of them perfectly useless and unserviceable. But," 
he added, "these subscriptions to what one may call a 
casual reading-room, which is rented in an old barrack here 
in the town, is a very different thing to a handsome building 
which is owned by the people, and controlled by them." 

These utterances of Mr. Ellis's as a farmer's son and 
a man enjoying a position of eminence in the political 
party to which he belongs, fix, probably, a minimum of 
reform below which no future well-wisher of the agri- 
cultural population of Wales can well allow his demands to 
fall. Even the seemingly otiose adjective referring to 
architecture is, if we mistake not, fraught with future 
significance.^ But we have cited Mr. Ellis's evidence at 

' Since the time when the Commission sat at Bala Mr. Ellis has addressed more 
than one meeting of Welshmen on the subject of architecture in the Principality. 



6o6 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

so great a length, mainly because he lays his finger on two 
of the weak points in the present reading-room system : 
we have used the wrong word — there is no system, but 
there ought to be a system. And one essential part of 
such system must be the exclusion of all possible suspicion 
of proselytising and patronising, as we have already hinted ; 
or in other words, suggested by this evidence, the unequi- 
vocal ownership and control of the reading-room or library 
by the people for the people. The other weak point 
indicated by the evidence in the case of some of the well- 
meant efforts, already mentioned, to enco.irage reading is 
the lack displayed of discretion to select or of means to 
buy suitable books. The surplusage of other libraries, 
antiquated and unserviceable volumes, cannot be expected 
to form good intellectual pabulum for a farmer or even a 
farmer's man, and a reading-room that relies on the Lost 
Ten Tribes must speedily find itself more lost than they. 

Having dealt at so great a length with the question 
of reading-rooms, we may remark that the evidence did 
not show that they were all unsuccessful, and that, even 
had such been the case, we should not feel com.pelled. 
seeing what the history of these undertakings has indi- 
vidually been, to consider that their want of success forms 
adequate proof that the rural population of Wales cares 
nothing about books. In fact the contrary statement has 
been more than once made to us — for example, by Mr. 
Ellis in the evidence already quoted ; not to mention the 
curious instance given at Lansawel by Mr. Thomas Davies. 
Being asked as to farm servants whether they take a 
delight in reading, Mr. Davies replied : ^ " Yes, 1 had a farm 
servant who left me last year : he had been with me nine 
years, and he was reading the Bible once a year every 
year right through, genealogies and all." On this we 
have to remark, on the one hand, that the man in question 
' Qu. 40,026 — 8. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. boy 

did his reading under difficulties as regards accommodation, 
and on the other hand that his case is probably not a pure 
instance of love of reading, but to a certain extent, at all 
events, of a sense of religious duty. We think it a mistaken 
sense of religious duty, but it is by no means uncommon 
in the Principality, and has in the estimation of strangers 
earned for the Welsh people the character of being devoted 
to Bibliolatry. It probably is a survival from a time when 
the Bible was almost the only extensive book which was 
as a matter of fact accessible to all in their own language ; 
and it is to some extent the result of the Bible being 
practically the only Sunday-school book still. On the 
principle, however, that a fact or two may prove of more 
value than a mass of opinion or theory, we have had the 
curiosity to inquire what has happened in one of the most 
rural parishes in the neighbourhood of Bala subsequent to 
the time when the Commission took the evidence there 
which we have in part cited, and above all since the 
machinery of the Parish Council has come into existence. 
We refer to Lanuwchityn, and our inquiry was directed 
to one of the best known men in Wales, Mr. Owen Morgan 
Edwards, Fellow and Tutor of Lincoln College, Oxford, 
and a native of Lanuwchliyn, where he spends more than 
half of each year. He has been good enough to send us 
the following letter bearing the date of Lincoln College) 
Oxford, February i, 1896: — 

"We adopted the Public Libraries Act at Lanuwchityn 
almost as soon as our Parish Council got into working 
order. The parish is entirely agricultural, and its scattered 
village is a very small one. All took an interest in the 
movement for a library: 114 voted for it, and only 19 
against. 

" We started with a little over 400 books, and the 
number is continually increasing, the farmers and labourers 
themselves presenting many. 



6o8 THE WELSH PEOPLE, (chap, xiii.) 

" Within the first two months after opening it, 354 books 
were taken out, the demands upon the library is increasing, 
and in spite of the Parish Council's willingness to spend 
money and of continual gifts, we find ourselves unable to 
cope with the demand. Books on agriculture, Daniel 
Owen's novels, books on history, and books on technical 
subjects are in greatest demand — all in Welsh, of course. 

"The success of the movement we attribute to the fact 
that the people feel the library belongs to them, and is 
under their sole management." 

For details concerning the growth and volume of the 
periodical literature published in the Principality we refer 
the reader to our chapter on the Language and Litera- 
ture ; ^ and we confine ourselves here to one or two 
remarks on those of our periodicals and newspapers which 
are in Welsh. There is no daily paper published in that 
language, but there are a good number of weekly ones, of 
which some are more or less closely identified with indi- 
vidual religious denominations. 

Speaking generally of the Welsh newspapers, we may 
say that they agree in eschewing news about horse-racing 
and in devoting but little of their space to games of any 
kind. They are chary in their accounts of divorce cases 
and indecent assaults, but they are rather more accessible 
to accounts of murder and tales of horror. They are more 
literary than English papers of the like standing, and they 
are always open to poets and versifiers. The editors hail 
with delight anything of an antiquarian nature, and any 
history or biography, especially relating to Wales. They 
maybe said to be on the whole Puritan in their tone. The 
majority of them are devoted to the interests of the Liberal 
Party, and only one has adopted a socialistic or collectivist 
attitude. 

' See pp 533 — 5, above ; also the Report, pp. 653 — 5, and the Appendices 
to it, especially C. III., pp. 195 — 200. 



RURAL WALES AT THE PRESENT DAY. 609 

This brief survey of the journaHstic literature current 
in Wales will serve also to indicate the general charac- 
teristics of the monthly and quarterly periodicals, as well 
indeed as of all the other books which are in request in 
Wales. The tone of all is expected to be more or less 
religious ; and even if they happen to be novels, they 
must devote ample space to the religious aspects of the 
characters which they delineate. Books of biography and 
travels are always acceptable ; and so are those that deal 
with Welsh history and antiquities. The world of fancy 
has its unfailing charm for the Cymro, and he is always 
accessible to the muse of poetry. Lastly, it is to his 
credit that the Gwydoniadur, a high-class encyclopaedia 
in the Welsh language, has found ready acceptance. It 
began to be issued in the year 1854, under the editorship 
of the Rev. Dr. Parry, of Bala ; and the late Mr. Gee, the 
originator and guiding spirit of the series, had in the year 
1896 the gratification — as editor, this time, as well as 
publisher — to see completed a second edition of the work 
in ten massive volumes, comprising nearly io,coo articles. 
Inquiries made by one of us have elicited the information 
that the whole undertaking has cost more than 20,000/., 
and that the veteran publisher was satisfied with the way 
in which his enterprise had been backed by his Welsh- 
speaking countrymen. We leave these bare facts to speak 
for themselves as to the current literature which Welshmen 
read, and more especially the rural population. 1 

' Since this chapter was written, our attention has been drawn to an 
interesting essay in Welsh on " Rural Life in Wales" (" Bywyd Gwledig yn 
Nghymru "), by Mr. Charles Ashton. This is printed at pp. 36—92 of the 
" Transactions of the National Eistetffod of Wales," Bangor, 1890. 



W.P. R R 



APPENDIX A. 

LIST OF THE CANTREFS AND CYMWDS OF 
WALES. 

There are several lists of these ancient divisions extant ; of 
these, the three oldest, each however representing a distinct text, 
are : — 

1. The list in the Red Book of Herges t, which has been diplo- 
matically reproduced as an appendix to Brut y Tywysogion in 
Rhys and Evans' Oxford series of Welsh texts, vol. ii. (pp.407 — 12), 
and was previously printed, but very inaccurately, at the bottoms 
of pp. 606 — 12 of vol ii. of the Myvyrian Archaiology of Wales 
(ist edition, or at pp. 737 et seq. in the 2nd or Denbigh edition). 

2. The text from the Cwtta Cyfarwylt, printed by Mr. 
Gwenogvryn Evans in Y Cymmrodor ix. 327 — 31. 

3. A list copied in the 15th century from (ultimately) a lost 
MS. of the 1 2th or 13th, preserved in MS. Cott. Domitian, A. 
viii. (Brit. Mus.), and printed in Leland's Itinerary, edition 1769, 
vol. v., folios 16 — 18. 

Among other lists which are of later date, being in fact com- 
posed subsequently to the division of Wales into counties, the more 
important and most frequently quoted are : — 

4. The list given in Sir John Price's Description of Wales (of 
which the oldest known MS., dated 1559, is that marked Caligula 
A. vi., among the Cottonian MSS. in the British Museum). This 
list was edited by Humphry Lwyd, and is printed in Dr. David 
Powel's Historie of Cambria, 1584, pp. i — 22 (and presumably in 
all subsequent editions of that work; in the Merthyr edition of 

R R 2 



6i2 APPENDIX A. 

1812 it occupies pp i. — xxiv.). It was also printed in a separate 
form by William Hall at Oxford in 1663, where it is said to have 
been merely " perused " by Humphry Lwyd ( V Cymmrodor xi. 

P- 54)- 

5. A list, virtually identical with No. 4, is the first of the two 
printed in the Myvyrian Archaiology of Wa/es, vol. ii., at the tops 
of pp. 606 — 13 (in the ist edition ; or at pp. 735 — 7 in the 2nd 
edition), and erroneously thought to be and quoted as being from 
the J^ed Book of Hergest. There are also numerous other less 
important lists in existence. 

We reprint here the list from Sir John Price's Description of 
Wales. 

" About the year 870, Rodericus Magnus, king of Wales, 
divided the country into three territories, which they called 
kingdoms, and which remained until of late days. 

These three were : — 

GwvNEDD, or North Wales ; 
Powvs Land ; and 
Deheubarth, or South Wales.^ 

" GwvNEDD had upon the north side the sea, from the River 
Dee at Basingwerke to Aberdyfi, and upon the west and south- 
west the River Dyfi, which divided it from South Wales and in 
some places from Powys Land, and on the south and east it is 
divided from Powys, sometimes with mountains and sometimes 
with rivers, till it came to the River Dee again. 

This land of old time divided into four parts : — 

(i.) Mo7i, having three cantrefs or hundreds which were sub- 
divided into six commots, namely : — 

(rt.) Aberffraw, with two commots, Lleyn and Malltraeth. 
ip.) Cemais, with two commots, Talibolion and Twrcelyn. 
{c.) Rossyr, with two commots, Tyndaethwy and Maenai. 

' As to Ihe alleged division by Rodericus (Rhodri) <ee above, p. 144 

it setj. 



APPENDIX A. 613 

(2.) Ar/on, having four cantrefs and ten commots, namely : — 

(a.) Aber, with three commots, Y Llechweddochaf, Y Llechwedd- 

isaf, and Nant-Conway. 
(^.) Arfon, with two commots, Uwch-Gwyrfai and Isgwyrfai. 
(c.) Dunodig, with two commots, Ardudwy and Efionyth. 
(d.) Lleyn, with three commots, Cymytmayn, Tinllayn, and 

Canologion. 

(3.) Meirionydd^ containing three cantrefs, and each cantref 
three commots : — 

(a.) Meireon, with three commots, Talybont, Pennal, and 

Ystumaner. 
(^.) Arustly, with three commots, Uwchcoed, Isboed, and 

Gwarthrenium. 
(^.) Penllyn, with three commots, Uwchmeloch, Ismeloch, and 

Michaint. 



(4.) Y Berfeddwlad^ containing five cantrefs and thirteen 
commots : — 

(a.) Rhyfonioc, with two commots, Uwchalet and Isalet. 

(b.) Ystrad, with two commots, Hiraethog and Cynmeirch. 

(^.) Rhos, with three commots, Uwchdulas, Isdulas, and 

Creuddyn. 
{d.) Dyffryn-Clwyd, with three commots, Coleigion, Llannerch, 

and Dogeulyn. 
{e) Tegengl, with three commots, Cynsyled, Prestatyn, and 

Ruthlan, 

"The second kingdom was Mathrafael. To this kingdom 
belonged the country of Powys and the land between Wye and 
Severn. Which part had upon the south and west, South Wales, 
with the Rivers Wye and Tywy, and other mears. Upon the 
north Gwynedd, and upon the east the Marches of England, from 
Chester to the Wye, a little above Hereford. 



6i4 APPENDIX A. 

This part called Powys, was divided into Powys Fadoc and 
Powys Wenwynwyn : — 

(i.) Powys Fadoc, contained five cantrefsand fifteen commots : — 
(a.) Y Barwn, with three commots, Dynmael, Edeyrnion, and 

Glyndyfrdwy^ 
{b.) Y Rhiw, with three commots, Yal, Ystratalyn, and Hop. 
(r.) Uwchnant, with three commots, Merffordd, Maelor 

Gymraeg, and Maelor Saesneg. 
(</.) Treft-ed, with three commots, Croesfain, Tref y Waun, and 

Croesoswallt. 
(^.) Rhaider, with three commots, Mochnant Israiader, Cynllaeth, 

and Nanheudwy. 

(2.) Powys Wenwynwyn had likewise five cantrefs and twelve 
commots : — 

(a.) Y Fyrnwy, with three commots, Mochnant uwch Raiader, 

Mechain Iscoed, and Llannerch Hudol. 
{b.) Ystlic, with three commots, Deuddwr, Corddwr Isaf, and 

Ystrad Marchell. 
if.) Llyswynaf, with two commots, Caerneon and Mechain 

Uwchcoed. 
(</.) Cedewain, with two commots, Conan and Hafren. 
(f.) Conan, with two commots, Cyfeilioc and Mowddwy. 

(Arustly was in old time in this part, but afterwards it came to 
the princes of Gwynedd.) 

(3.) The third part belonging to Mathrafael, was the land 
between the Wye and Severn, containing four cantrefs and thirteen 
commots: — 

{a.) Melienydd, with three commots, Ceri, Swyddygre Rhi- 

walallt, and Glyn Erthon. 
{b.) Elfel, with three commots, Uwchmynydd, Ismynydd, and 

Llechddyfnog. 
{c.) Y Clawdd, with three commots, Dyffryn Teyfediad, Swyd- 

dynogen, and Pennwellt. 
{d.) Buellt, with three commots, Swydd y Farn, Dreulys, and 

Isyrwon. 



APPENDIX A. 615 

"The last kingdom of Wales, called Dynefawr, was divided 
into six parts : — 

I.) CaredigioTi, containing four cantrefs and ten commots : — 
(a.) Penwedic, with three commots, Geneurglyn, Perfedd, and 

Creuthyn. 
(/^.) Canawl, with three commots, Mefenyth, Anhunoc, and 

Pennarth. 
{c.) Castell, with two commots, Mabwynion and Caerwedros. 
(</.) Syrwen, with two commots, Gwenionydd and Iscoed. 

2.) Djy^^, containing eight cantrefs and twenty-three commots: — 

a.) Emlyn, with three commots, Uwchcuch, Iscuch, and 

Lefethyr. 
b^ Arberth, with three commots, Penrhyn ar Elays, Esterolef, 

and Talacharn. 
<;.) Daugledden, with three commots, Amgoed, Pennant, and 

Efelfre. 
d.) Y Coed, with two commots, Llanhayaden and Castell 

Gwys. 
e.) Penfro, with three commots. Coed yr haf, Maenorbyrr, and 

Penfro. 
/.) Rhos, with three commots, Hwlffordd, Castell Gwalchmai, 

and Ygarn. 
g.) Pubidioc, with three commots, Mynyw, Pencaer, and 

Pebidioc. 
k.) Cemais, with three commots, Uwchnefer, Isnefer, and 

Trefdraeth. 

3. ) Carmarthenshire, having four cantrefs and fifteen commots :- — 

a.) Finioc, with three commots, Harfryn, Derfedd, and 

Isgeneny. 
^.) Eginoc, with three commots, Gwyr, Cydweli, and Carnwill 

eon. 
c.) Bychan, with three commots, Mallaen, Caio, and Maenor 

Deilo. 
d.) Mawr, with four commots, Cethinoc, Elfyw, Uchdryd, and 

Wydigada. 



6i6 APPENDIX A. 

(4.) Morganwg, containing four cantrefs and fifteen commots : — 

(rt.) Croneth, with three commots, Rwngneth ac Afan, Tir yr 

Hwndrwd, and Maenor Glynogwr. 
{h.) Pennythen, with four commots, Meyscyn, Glynrhodny 

Maenor Talafan, and Maenor Ruthyn. 
{c.) Brenhinol, with four commots, Cibowr, Senghennyth, 

Uwchcaeth, and Iscaeth. 
((/.) GwentUw, with two commots, y Rhardd Ganol and 

Eithafdylgion. 

(5.) Gwent, having three cantrefs and ten commots : — 

{a.) Gwent, with three commots, Y mynydd, Iscoed Llefnydd, 

and Tref y grug. 
{b.) Iscoed, Avith four commots, Brynbuga, Uwchcoed, y 

Teirtref, and Erging ac Ewyas. 
(c.) Coch. 

(6.) Brecheiniog, having three cantrefs and eight commots : — 

{a.) Selef, with two commots, Selef and Trahayern. 

{b.) Canol, with three commots, Talgorth, Ystradyw, and 

Brwynllys or Eglwys Yail. 
{c.) Mawr, with three commots, Tir Raulff-Llywell and Cerrig- 

Howel." 



APPENDIX B. 

(See page 23 J 

PRE-ARYAN SYNTAX IN INSULAR CELTIC. 

" The notion of a ' mixed language ' must have much more weight assigned to 
it than has heretofore been allowed." — O. Schrader, Prehistoric Antiquities 
Eng. trans, p. 113. 

The syntax of Welsh and Irish differs in some important 
respects from that of the languages belonging to the other branches 
of the Aryan family. Professor Rhys suggested many years ago 
that these peculiarities are due to the influence of a pre-Aryan 
language; this suggestion led me to make the comparisons 
summarised in this paper. The substance of that part of the 
paper which deals with Egyptian was communicated to Professor 
Rhys in April, 1891 ; the other comparisons were made later ; but 
hitherto they have all remained unpublished. I now gladly avail 
myself of the opportunity kindly offered to publish them in the 
pages of "The Welsh People." 

When one language is supplanted by another, the speakers 
find it comparatively easy to adopt the new vocabulary, but not 
so easy to abandon the old modes of expression ; and thus, whilst 
the old language dies, its idiom survives in the new. The neo- 
Celtic languages, then, which are Aryan in vocabulary, and largely 
non-Aryan in idiom, appear to be the acquired Aryan speech of a 
population originally speaking a non-Aryan language. This view 
does not necessarily imply that the ancestors of the Welsh and 
Irish belonged almost exclusively to the conquered pre-Celtic race : 
we may suppose that the invading armies of Celts destroyed a 
large part of the aboriginal male population, and took possession 



6i6 APPENDIX B. 

of their wives, thus producing an amalgamated race, who, however, 
learnt their speech from their non-Celtic mothers. 

These non-Celtic inhabitants of Britain are believed by anthro- 
pologists to be of the same race as the ancient Iberians, and to 
have migrated through France and Spain from North Africa, ^ 
where the race is represented by the Berbers and the ancient 
Egyptians. " The skulls of the pure Iberian race, such as those 
found in the long barrows of Britain, or the Caverne de 1' Homme 
Mort, are of the same type as those of the Berbers and the Guanches, 
and bear a considerable resemblance to the skulls of the ancient 
Egyptians."- Again, on the Hnguistic side, M. de Rochemonteix 
has shown in his " Rapports grammaticaux entre I'egyptien et le 
berbere,"'^ that a relation exists between the Berber languages and 
ancient Egyptian, which are now usually included in one family, 
called the Hamitic. If the Iberians of Britain are related to the 
speakers of these languages, it is natural to expect that their 
language also belonged to the Hamitic family — in other words, 
that the pre-Aryan idioms which still live in Welsh and Irish were 
derived from a language allied to Egyptian and the Berber 
tongues. And if there is evidence that this is so— if we find, on 
comparison, that neo-Celtic syntax agrees with Hamitic on almost 
every point where it differs from Aryan, we have the linguistic 
complement of the anthropological evidence, and the strongest 
corroboration of the theory of the kinship of the early inhabitants 
of Britain to the North African white race. 

Egyptian preserves a very ancient form of Hamitic speech ; and 
we can assume with confidence that it approaches much nearer 
to the primitive Hamitic type of language than the Berber tongues 
which we are acquainted with only in their modern form. Egyptian 
may therefore be expected to agree more closely in general struc- 
ture with our hypothetic pre-Celtic dialect ; and it will be con- 
venient to consider first those parallels which are offered by it. 

' A. H. Keane, "Ethnology," 1896, pp. 135-6. 

- Isaac T.aylor, "Origin of the Aryans," p. 220. See also Sergi, "Origine 
e cliffusione della stirpe mediterranea " (Rottie, 1895), p. 79. 

•* In the " Memoires du Congr^s international des Orientalistes," ire Session, 
t. ii., p. 66 e/ set/. 



APPENDIX B. 619 

I. The order of words in the sentence. — As the relations of words 
in an Aryan sentence are sufficiently shown by inflexions, the 
order of the words may vary ; but normally the verb comes last. 
In Welsh and Irish the verb usually comes y^r^/.- thus in Welsh, 
Dartiennod: Ifdn y tlyfr, " Evan read the book " ; in med. Irish, 
Aliss Patrice Dubthach, " Patrick requested Dubthach." O'Donovan 
in his "Irish Grammar" (p. .357) says : " In the natural order of an 
Irish sentence the verb comes first, the nominative, with its 
dependents, next after it, and next the object of the verb." Com- 
pare with the above the following rules given by Renouf in his 
"Egyptian Grammar" (p. 57)^: "The order of the words in an 
Egyptian sentence is constant. When the verb is expressed it 
precedes the subject. If both the nearer and the remoter objects 
of a verb are nouns, the former is placed after the subject and the 
latter comes last." ' 

But there appears in Welsh another form of sentence in which 
the noun comes first. No distinction is made in any of our Welsh 
grammars between this and the simple form of sentence in which 
the verb comes first ; and the Welsh translators of the Bible con- 
stantly misuse it for the simple form ; as fob a atebod, instead of 
atebodjob, for "Job answered." This misuse of the construction 
is absolutely unknown in the spoken language ; and such a phrase 
as Job a afebod is never heard except when the fact of some one 
having answered is known and the doubt in the hearer's mind is 
as to who it was that answered. In short, the verb " to be " is 
understood with Job, and a is the relative pronoun ; thus Job a 
atebod means " (it was) Job who answered." ^ In Egyptian, says 
Renouf (p. 57), "a noun at the beginning of a sentence implies 
the ellipsis of the verb ' to be.'" 

But a noun may also stand quite independently at the begin- 
ning of a sentence. In Irish, writes O'Donovan (p. 357), "when 



• The references in this paper to Renouf's "Grammar" were made to the 
2ncl edition ; but as the 3rd seems to be an exact repiint of the 2nd they hold 
good of the 3rd also. 

- See also Brugsch, " Grammaire hieroglyphique," p. 100. 

^ The full meaning is seen when the contrast is expressed : Paul a lefaroct, 
nid Pedr, " (it was) Paul who spoke, not Peter." 



620 APPENDIX B. 

the noun is placed before the verb, it does not immediately connect 
with the verb, but rather stands in an adso/u^e sta.te." ^ So Renouf, 
speaking elsewhere of a noun coming first, says : " The noun is 
not the grammatical subject of the verb, but what grammarians 
call the ' nominative absolute''^'' (p. 47). 

In Welsh and Irish an adjective or a noun in the genitive case 
is placed after the noun which it qualifies ; as, Welsh, gwr mawr, 
Irish, fear mor, "vir magnus " ; Welsh, Cdn Selyf, "the Song of 
Solomon " ; Irish, inghean Shaidhbhe,^'' the daughter of Sabia." So 
in Egyptian pa netar aa - (Welsh, y duw mawr), " the great 
god " ; i'ruu ta^ (Welsh, eithafoeTt daear), "the ends of the earth." 
Of course, the same order is preserved when the relation of the 
genitive is expressed by means of a preposition. Now, M. 
Bergaigne^ has shown that in the primitive Aryan sentence the 
qualifying word, whether adjective or genitiye, came before the 
word qualified. In Welsh and Irish, then, we have a divergence 
from the primitive Aryan order, and an adoption of the same 
order as that found in Egyptian. 

2. Personal Suffixes. — In Egyptian "the suffixes representing 
the different persons are : — 



Singular, 








Plural 




ist person 




a. 






ist person 


n. 


2nd „ 


masc. 


k. 






2nd „ 


ten. 


2nd „ 


fern. 


t. 






3rd „ 


sen. 


3rd „ 


masc. 


/• 






3rd „ 


set, u, or un. 


3rd „ 


fem. 


s 


or 


set. 







These suffixes (which, with one exception, do not exist inde- 
pendently) are added to verbs, prepositions, and nouns. In 

' This construction, he says, is "unquestionably aulty." Similarly in some 
Welsh grammars, such as that of Tegai, distinctively Welsh idioms, if found 
at all, will be found under such a heading as " Common Errors." 

- Renouf, " Eg. (jrani.," p. 51. 

•' //'/(/., p. 21. 

■* "Memoire^ de la Soc. de Linguistique de Paris," iii. i, 2, 3, (pioted by 
Sayce, " Sc. of Lang.," i. p. 425. 

'" Renouf, "Eg. Gram.," p 17. 



APPENDIX B. 621 

Welsh and Irish they are represented (i) by inflexional personal 
endings already existing in Aryan ; (2) by agglutinative personal 
pronouns. In what follows, I use a dot • between an inflexion 
and a root in writing AVelsh and Irish, thus givel'af, " I see " ; 
and a hyphen between a suffixed pronoun and the word to which 
it is attached, thus gwel-M, " she sees." 

Welsh grammarians say that in Welsh, usually at any rate, the 
verb agrees with its subject in number and person ; and most 
writers, notably the translators of the Bible, have attempted to 
some extent to observe the rule. But natural spoken Welsh 
knows nothing of such an agreement ; the verb is always put in 
the third person singular (which is thus virtually an impersonal 
formi), except when the subject is the personal pronoun implied 
by the inflexion ; thus, daethant is " they came," but " the men 
came " is daeth y dynion. This principle was stated as follows^ in 
an article contributed by me to the Welsh quarterly Y Genifien, 
in October, 1890, before I was aware of the existence of anything 
analogous to it outside Celtic : " The ' inflected ' forms daethum, 
daethoch, daethant^ and the like, may be called pronot7iitial forms, 
and they should not be used except when the pronoun is the 
subject of the verb. If the subject is a noun, the simple 
impersonal form daeth should be used : daeth y dynion, not 
daethant y dytiion. The meaning of daethant y dynion, if it has 
any meaning, is 'the men they came.'" I now quote the rule of 
Egyptian grammar as given by Renouf (p. 47) : " The suffixes 
stand for pronouns, and as such take the place of the subject 
when the latter is not expressed. When the subject is expressed, 
the suffix must be omitted. We say dny^-sen, they live ; but a«x 
netdru, the gods live. Netaru an^-sen would signify ' the gods, 
they live.' " 

The coincidence is absolute. The pronominal suffixes in 
Egyptian are not mere signs of relation ; each has a substantial 
meaning of its own, and must not be used when that meaning is 



' It will be understood that this is what I mean in this paper when I speak 
01' the impersonal form. Etymologically it is the Aryan 3rd pers. sing., but 
actually it is impersonal — that is what Welsh and Irish have made it. 



622 APPENDIX B. 

already expressed by another word. In Welsh the idea of pro- 
nominal suffixes has been completely transferred to the Aryan 
inflexions of the verb. 

It is the same in Irish. " It must be confessed, however," says 
O'Donovan (p. 357), "that in the Irish language, ancient Or 
modern, no agreement is observed between the nominative case 
and the verb, except in the relative and the third person plural, 
and that even this agreement would appear to have been originally 
adopted in imitation of the Latin language." Indeed, in Irish, 
the impersonal form of the verb, besides being used when the 
subject is a noun, may be employed with a suffixed pronoun to 
take the place of an inflected personal form. This, of course, 
represents the Egyptian method still more faithfully; and it has 
almost wholly supplanted verbal inflexion in Scotch Gaelic. ^ 

In Irish an ending of an inflexional character may be used to 
denote the object of the verb. " These same pronominal 
elements," says Windisch, in his " Irish Grammar " (Eng. trans., 
p. 56), meaning the elements attached to prepositions, "also 
become suffixed to verbal forms in the sense of subjects and 
objects ; thus, ainsiunn, protegat nos (a/«/V, protegat), taithiimri, est 
nobis {taith, est)." Renouf says of Egyptian (p. 48) : " The 
suffixes appended to verbs, either directly or with the intervention 
of particles, may represent the object as well as the subject of a 
verb ; thus, mas-sen, superat eos, tes-nek, nectit tibi." In Welsh, 
the object is expressed by the ordinary suffixed pronoun ; thus, 
the Egyptian nehem-ten-ua, " defendite vos me," - may be rendered 
literally into Welsh diffymvwch-ji. 

The neo-Celtic passive voice is more properly an impersonal 
verb'^; its inflexional ending, which is the same for all persons, 
stands for the indefinite subject, and the suffixed pronoun denotes 
the object ; thus Welsh cerir-ji, "on m'aime." In Egyptian, the 
passive is formed by the suffix tu, which also means the same as 

1 Professor Rhys notes : " One tense at le^st has remains of inflections, the 
so-called past subjunctive." 

^ Renouf, op. cit., p. 58. 

2 Anwyl, " Welsh Gram., Accidence," p. 41 ; O'Donovan, " Irish Gram.," 
p. 183. 



APPENDIX B. 623 

che French "on";^ thus 1-tu er tet, "on vint pour dire," Welsh 
deu'wyd i ddyivedyd. The Egyptian. /« is feminine in form ; and 
in Welsh, when the indefinite subject is denoted by a suffixed 
pronoun, that pronoun is the third person singular feminine hi ; 
as mae-hi yn glawio, "it is raining." 

In Welsh and Irish, when the object of a preposition is a 
personal pronoun, it takes the form of a pronominal suffix which 
is so fused with the preposition as to be indistinguishable from 
an inflexion ; thus, in Welsh, " for us " is not er fit, but ero?n. 
In Welsh, three "conjugations" of prepositions may be dis- 
tinguished — those in which the first person singular ends in -af, 
-(>/■> -yf- It is needless to point out how un-Aryan this conjuga- 
tion of prepositions is ; but, as above stated, in Egyptian the 
endings which form personal verbs are also affixed to prepositions. 
Thus, Egyptian em, " in " {am in combination), Welsh jf«, Irish in; 
Egyptian am-a, dm-ek, dm-ef, " in me, in thee, in him," Welsh 
ynn'of, y?in'ot, yn'do ; Irish, ind'ium, ind'iut, ind'id. 

The Egyptian suffixes are attached to nouns in the sense of 
possessive pronouns : thus, tfe-d, " my father " ; tfe-f, " his father." 
I believe we have in Welsh a few nouns taking pronominal 
suffixes, which, like those attached to prepositions, are of the 
same form as verbal inflexions. Hyd means "length," hyd 
hyn, " the length of this," i.e., as far as this ; ar hyd Gwy, " on 
the length of the Wye," i.e., along the Wye (Zeuss-Ebel, p. 685). 
Now, " along me " may be expressed by ar fy hyd, in which hyd 
IS plainly a noun, or by ar hydof, or simply hydof ; and so for all 
persons. With hyd, "length," and hydof ox ar hydof, "along me," 
compare the Egyptian ^eft, "face," and xeftd or em xeftd, " before 
me." The Welsh novxv eido, "property," has not hitherto been 
satisfactorily explained. It may have prefixed to it a possessive 
pronoun, z.^ fy ei^o, "my property" ; or it may take a personal 
ending, with or without the article yr prefixed ; thus, eidof or yr 
eidof " my property " ; eidot or yr eidot, " thy property." It is 
usually explained as a possessive pronoun, and equated with the 



1 Pierret, " Vocabulaire hieroglyphiqiie," p. 665 ; Renouf, op. cit., p. 18. 
* Brugsch, " Grammaire hieroglyphique," p. 57. 



624 APPENDIX B. 

Irish dt, " his " or " her " ; i so that ei^of means " my his." This 
explanation, though not impossible, leaves something to be 
desired, especially as the old first and second persons plural are 
einym, eitiwc/i, which again cannot be explained from the first 
plural possessive ein, since this was invented by Salesbury in the 
sixteenth century, the old form being an."^ But even if eidof is 
a pronoun, it is like no Aryan pronoun ; rather it resembles the 
Coptic series of pronouns : poi, " il mio " ; pok, " il tuo " : pqf, 
"il sue " ;'^ or the Berber oua-i, "le mien " ; oua-k, " le tien."^ 

But instances of nouns with personal inflexions are rare in 
Welsh ; and (unless ei^qf be one) are confined to prepositional 
phrases.^ This, indeed, is only what we should expect ; for in 
the Aryan language acquired by our Iberians the noun had 
other endings for which personal inflexions could be substituted 
only in very exceptional cases. The possessive pronoun is usually 
prefixed to the noun in Welsh and Irish (which may also be done 
in Egyptian) ; but a suffixed pronoun is frequently added to the 
noun, as if it had been felt that the force of the old suffix ought 
not to be altogether lost. In written Welsh, as a rule, this 
suffixed pronoun is artificially suppressed ; but it is always heard 
in spoken Welsh, except when it is reflexive:'' thus, -Pan wel-o 
i dad, "when he sees his (suum) father" ; but Pan wel'af t dad-o, 
" when I see his father " ; and Fan wel-o i dad-o, " when he sees 
his (ejus) father." 

3. Periphrastic Conjugation. — Speaking from the point of view 
of word-building, one may say that the base of the verb in 
Egyptian consists of a verbal noun or infinitive, as a«x>" living" 

' Zeuss-Ebel, "Gram. Celtica," p. 337; Brugmann, " Grimdriss," Eng. 
trans, iii., 1 . 339. 

- Professor Rhys writes; "They may all contain a noun etymon corre- 
sponding to A.-S. ageii, ' property,' related to the modern ozun." 

•* Rossi, " Gram, copto-geroglifica," p. 64. These are mostly adjectival in 
ancient Egyptian : see Brugsch, op. cit., p. II. 

■• Hanoteau, " Grammaire tamachek'," p. 33. 

" So also in Coptic, Rossi, op. cit., p. 66. 

'' In which case the need of it is not felt ; just as in many languages the 
pronoun when reflexive is replaced by the article : thus in Italian, Mi duole il 
capo, not »n'o capo. 



APPENDIX B. 625 

or " to live " ; but it becomes a verb by the addition of a subject, 
as in the instance above quoted, anx netdru, " the gods Uve,'' or 
of a pronominal suffix, as anx-a, " I live," anx-ek, " thou livest." 
The element n or an added to the root forms a tense-stem, 
whose meaning however seems to be somewhat vague : meh-nd or 
meh-dn-a, " je remplis " (pres. or pret., Brugsch), rex-nd, " io ho 
saputo " (Rossi). There is no other simple form of verb, but a 
large variety of tenses can be expressed periphrastically. 

{a) Perhaps the most common form of periphrastic conjugation 
is the following: (i) verb "to be," with personal suffix or other 
subject; (2) preposition ; (3) crude form of verb as verbal noun. 
In Welsh and Irish, although these languages retain many of the 
Aryan tenses, this construction is extremely common ; and, in 
Welsh at any rate, has long tended to supplant the synthetic form 
of conjugation, as being more precise, though weaker. The three 
prepositions commonly used for this purpose in Egyptian are 
em, " in," er, " to," " for," her, " above," " upon," indicating the 
present, future, and perfect respectively. These correspond in 
use with the Welsh prepositions yn, " in," am, " for," wedi, " after." 
Thus : 

Egyptian : du-k em meh.^ 

Welsh : wyi yn itanw. 

English : art thou in filling ; i.e., thou art filling. 

Egyptian : du-d er ^em er ta dnt.^ 

Welsh : wyf amfynd i V mynyTt. 

English : am I for going to the mountain ; i.e., I shall go, &c. 

Egyptian: du-f_ her kem taif hemet."^ 

Welsh : mae-ef wedi cael ei wraig. 

English : is he j P [ finding his wife ; i.e., he has found, &:c. 

A very large proportion of simple assertions heard in spoken 
Welsh, probably about a third of the total number, are cast in 

1 Brugsch, op. cit., p. 45. 
- Renouf, op. cit., p. 50. 

•' Compare tliaeiipon and thereafter. Ir, Welsh, "after hearing from you " 
and " upon hearing from you " would both be wedi clywed oiHwi-thych. 
W.P. S S 



626 APPENDIX B. 

this form. In the present sense we have in English a similar 
construction : he is a-coming (i.e., on coniing. This is not Teutonic ; 
is it not borrowed from Celtic? In the perfect sense it has been 
transferred from Irish into Irish-English; as when an Irishman 
says " I am after having my dinner," meaning that he has had it. 
Of course the English comic papers always mistake him to mean 
that he is in quest of it, which shows how foreign the construction 
is to English. 

ip) There are also in Egyptian periphrastic verbal forms without 
prepositions, of which the following are the most common types. 
" He knows " may be expressed : (i.) au re^-ef, literally " is knows 
he"; (ii.) du-f re-^-ef, " is-he knows-he " ; (iii.) du-f re^, " is-he 
knows." With (i.) may be compared the use in mediaeval Welsh 
of the impersonal proclitic form r^- of the verb "to be" before 
a finite verb; e.g., ys attebtvys Owein,^ "is answered Owen," 
i.e., Owen answered ; r^ ethyw gennyf deuparth vy oet,"^ "is went 
with me two parts of my life," that is, two-thirds of my life are 
spent. With (ii.) and (iii.) the use of sef {ys-ef, est is) or syd 
(ysyd, est id) at the beginning of a sentence ; e.g., sefyw hwnnw^^ 
" est-is est ille " ; yssyd yssit cussul a rodaf itt,^ "est-id est-id 
consilium quod do tibi." The verb "to be," which serves only 
to mark an assertion, would be liable to drop, leaving behind its 
affixed pronoun ; and this is possibly the explanation of the fact 
that the verb in simple assertions in spoken Welsh has usually 
a pronominal element before it : fe tvnaeth ef hyn, " he did this " ; 
yr oed ef yno {yr = mediieval yit), " he was there." At any rate, this 
is what actually took place in Egyptian itself, where the old auxiliary 
frequently disappears in Coptic, leaving its personal affix to stand 
at the beginning of the verb.^ It may be objected to this explana- 
tion that the pronoun is always followed by the relative in mediaeval 



' Skene, " Four Anc. Books of Wales," ii. p. 189. 

^ Rhys and Evans, " Mabinogion," p. 104. 

^ Ibid., p. 3, 1. I. 

^ Ibid., p. 118. 

•'' De Rochemonteix, op. cit., p. 97. In Welsh, the conj. ac is a before a 
consonant, but we say ar iniwelais, etc. (see Rev. xiii., xiv., xv., xx., xxi.), 
which shows that mi was preceded by a word, now lost beginning with a vowel. 



APPENDIX B. 627 

Welsh, mi a tve/a/, ef a itaw. Mediaeval prose writers certainly 
had a tendency to reduce everything to this form ; but in these 
cases the a is mostly artificial. In the oldest piece of written 
Welsh now in existence, the Juvencus fragment, we have Ti 
dicones^ not ti a dicones ; and in the Gododin, Ef diodes gormes, 
ef dodes ffin ; ti disgymmt,- and so throughout : so also in the 
Black Book, mi disgoganafe? In some cases, however, the a may 
be legitimate, slightly modifying the sense : ac yssef a dygyrch* 
"and is-he that snatches," i.e., and he snatches. This seems to 
be similar in form to the Egyptian au-fpumer,^ "is-he that loves," 
i.e., he loves, " egli ama." 

Periphrastic forms with the verb "to do " are very simple in 
Egyptian : dri-d mer, Welsh gwna'f garu, " I do love " ; dri-k mer, 
V^&Xshgtvne'i gam, " tu ami."^ In Welsh, the verbal noun is very 
commonly placed first, followed by a and the auxiliary verb ; thus, 
my net a oruc Kei y 'r gegin,' "go that did Kay to the kitchen," 
i.e., Sir Kay went into the kitchen. Compare : 

Egyptian : sej>er pu dr-nef er paif pe.^ 
Welsh : dyfod a wndeth-ef i ^w dy. 
English : come that did he to his house. 

4. The preposition yn. — The syntactical similarity of the Welsh 
preposition _>7/, in all its uses, to the Egyptian preposition em is so 
remarkable that it deserves a section to itself. 

(i) Like other prepositions, both take pronominal sufifixes : 

Egyptian : du-k dm-d, du-d dm-ek.^ 
Welsh : layt ynn'of, wyf ynn'ot. 
English : art thou in me, am I in thee. 

That is, " thou art in me, I am in thee." 

1 Skene, op. cit., ii. p. i. 
^ Ibid., pp. 69, 74. 
3 Ibid., p. 18. 
•• " Mabinogion," p. 127. 

* Rossi, op. cit., p. 113. 
^ Ibid., p. 114. 

'' *' Mabinogion," p. 163, 

* Renouf, op. cit., p. 21. 

S S 2 



628 APPENDIX B. 

(2) In periphrastic conjugation both mark the present tense, as 
above noted ; du-f em meh, mae-efyn ffantv, "he is filling." 

(3) Renouf says (p. 56) : " The usual sense, however, of the 
[crude form of the] verb preceded by em is participial or gerun- 
dive." Similarly few Welsh grammars omit to say that the present 
participle is formed by prefixing jv/ to the infinitive : as Dr. Davies, 
"ex Infinitis fiunt participia, prseposita praepositione yn, vt 
yn cam, amans." ^ 

(4) Both are used in the sense of " in " before the name of a 
place ; e.g., Egyptian em Abu, " in Elephantine," Welsh y}i 
ILundain, " in London " ; Egyptian em tet-a, Welsh yn (fy) ttaw-i, 
" in my hand." Also before a noun of time : Egyptian em kerhf,- 
Welsh yn (j') nos, " at night." In this sense both form a large 
number of prepositional expressions : Welsh yn ol, Egyptian em sa, 
" derriere, apres, d'apres, selon, par suite de." ^ 

(5) The Egyptian em and the Welsh yn are used to introduce 
the complement after the verbs of being, becoming, &c. Thus, 
" I am a child," " thou art a god," " he is a servant of Osiris " : 

Egyptian : du-a em serd.^ du-k em neler.^ 

Welsh : tvyf yn blentyn. wy't yn 'Suw. 

EngUsh : am I child. art thou god. 

Egyptian : unn-ef em ses en Asdr.^ 

Welsh : mae-efyn 7vas i Asar. 
English : is he servant of Osiris. 

No English word can represent the preposition here ; occasionally 
it may be rendered approximately by " as," thus x<^ ^f"' neter 
cyfod yn Uinv, " rise as a god " \' but it means more than " as " or 
"like" : it implies absolute identity. It is true that into, cis, etc., 

' " Antiq. Ling. Brit. Rudimenta" (A.D. 1621), p. 95. 

- Birch, " Egyptian Texts," p. 18. 

•' Brugsch, op. cit. , p. 86. 

"• Renouf, op. cit., p. 32. 

•'■ Birch, op. cit., p. 38. 

^ Rossi, op. cit., p. 105. 

'' Birch, op. cit, p. 16. 



APPENDIX B. 629 

may occur sporadically in Aryan languages in a similar manner 
after verbs of "making"; but the peculiarity of the Welsh con- 
struction is that the preposition introduces every kind of comple- 
ment, and to omit it is the exception, not the rule. It comes, 
like the Egyptian em, before an adjective as well as a noun ; 
e.g., " thou art mighty " : 

Egyptian : unn-ek em user^ 
Welsh : wyt y?i gadarn. 
English : art thou mighty. 

(6) Allied to the above construction, but sufificiently distinct 
from it, is the use of yn before any adjective to form an adverb. 
This is the only way in which adverbs can be formed from 
adjectives in Welsh, and the same method is always employed in 
Egyptian. Thus, Egyptian em next, ^NeXshyn gryf, " strongly " : 

Egyptian : aq-es er pet em se\en.^ 

Welsh : aeth-hi i nef yn ebrwyit. 
English : went she to heaven suddenly. 

. The use of the preposition yn before an adjective has long puzzled 
writers on Welsh grammar ; but the difficulty disappears if we 
suppose that the idiom was taken over from a language in which, 
as in Egyptian, no line could be drawn between an adjective and 
an abstract noun. 

The preposition yn in Welsh is followed by different mutations 
of initial consonants ; but these differences imply no more than 
that the word in constructions (5) and (6) was originally similar 
in form to the archaic Latin indu, as Zeuss -^ saw it must have been 
in construction ( I ). It is not, however, upon the sameness of the 
preposition that I wish to lay stress : the preposition may, and 
does, vary ; thus, in Egyptian, er is used as commonly as em in 
construction (6). But the remarkable thing is that every one of 
these Welsh constructions, all of which, except the fourth, are 

' Ibid., p. 38 : " User, victorieux, puissant, riche." — Pierret, "Voc. Hier.," 
p. 97. 

- Renouf, op. citi, p. 32. 

^ Zeuss- Ebel, p. 44. The suggestion that predicative and adverbial ' jk« 
might also have been of this form is due to Professor Rhys. ■ . -. 



630 APPENDIX B. 

more or less peculiar, should have its exact counterpart in 
Egyptian. 

These constructions are also found in Irish ; but the preposi- 
tion in (2) and (3) is oc, ag, and in (6) co, go, though in, ind, 
appears in the older periods ; 1 while the " in " of (5) has been 
made into " in his," partly perhaps on account of the aspiration 
after it corresponding to the Welsh soft mutation, but chiefly from 
an attempt to make the construction logical. At any rate, it does 
not seem to be old in this form. 

We should expect the parent Berber language to form a link 
between Egyptian and Iberian, and to have developed in common 
with the latter certain features not found in the former. This is, 
indeed, what the evidence seems to indicate ; for, though the 
modern Berber dialects have been greatly modified by early contact 
with Semitic, they furnish parallels to most of the pecuHarities of 
neo-Celtic syntax which we have not already found matched in 
Egyptian. 

I. The Berber dialects agree with Egyptian and neo-Celtic in 

' Zeuss considered (Z.-E., 609) that the Irish adverbial ind, with the alHed 
Welsh adverbial and predicative _)'«, was the dative of the article. There is 
extremely little to say for this view ; but the interchangeability of the Irish ind 
with the preposition i^o affords at least a strong presumption that ind is also a 
preposition, and this is confirmed by the fact that its evident meaning is 
utterly at variance with that of the article. Compare in-line, " a little,'" 
where we have adverbial in, with in-din, "this day," where we have the 
article ; or contrast the Welsh yn fore and y bore, which Zeuss seems to think 
mean the same thing (Z.-E., 6i'j),—yn-fore iawn, \lav irpwi (Mark xvi. 2), 
y bore, eirl rh ^rpa>'^ (Mark xv. I). The use of Welsh predicative yn is, if 
possible, even more decisive, (a) Mae-ef yn (renin means "he is a king," 
not " he is the king," which must be quite otherwise expressed, {b) The pre- 
dicative yn precedes words before which the article is inadmissible, f.,i,'., pob, 
" every" (i Cor. ix. 22). (r) The predicative j;; may take the accent : viae- 
e/\ti barod, yn awr : but the article yr cannot be accented, nor can the 
article yn of r« fl7w (Irish, ind-6r-sa). (d) The predicatives;/ softens the initial 
consonant of a plural as well as a singular noun or adjective, yn gochyon (Mab., 
p. 2, 1. i), and the dative plural of the article certainly never ended in a 
vowel. (^) The predicative or adverbial yn, which softens the following 
consonant, is often replaced by the yn which nasalises the consonant, and 
which is admittedly a preposition ; ymhell for yn bell ; ynghynt for yn gynt ; 
vngharn for yn gam, contrasted with yn ddi-gam, J. D. Rhys, Gram. (1592), 
p. [xvi]. 



APPENDIX B. 631 

the arrangement of the different parts of the sentence. "II semble 
que la construction la plus generale soit la suivante : le verbe, 
puis le sujet, enfin le regime :. Chekkadh a tue un lion, inr'a 
Chekkadh ahar " ;^ in Welsh, Hadod Chekkadh lew. 

But, as in Welsh, a noun or its equivalent may come first (as 
complement of an implied verb " to be ") followed by a relative 
pronoun (expressed or implied) with the verb and the rest of the 
sentence. The pure relatives so used are a {= Welsh a), as 
(= Welsh jj^^jjv). • 

Tamashek' : midden a ?iemo2{s 02irger' tidhidhmr 
Welsh : gwyr a ym nid givraged. 

English : (it is) men that we are not women. 
Tamashek': s famachek' as isioiil oiirger s tarabt.^ 
Welsh : yfi Ta??iashek' y sieryd nid yn Arabeg. 

English : (it is) in Tamashek' that he speaks not in Arabic. 
Tamashek' : s takouba as t inr'a.^ 
Welsh : a chledyf y 'i itadod. 

English : (it is) with (a) sword that him he killed. 
Tamashek' : nekkon a t itir'an? 
Welsh : viyfi a '/ Haddd. 

English : (it is) I that him killed. 

Tamashek' : etitenidh a t i?ir'an.^ 
Welsh : hwynhvy a '/ Uadod. 

English : (it is) they that him killed. 

The form inr'an is called a participle in the grammars ; but there 
seems to be no reason for such a name. " En realite, il n'y a la 
rien qui ressemble au participe fran9ais ou arabe " ; ^ it is an 
impersonal form of the verb used when the relative is the 
subject. Tamashek' has feminine and plural forms of it, not 

^ Masqueray, " Observations grammaticales sur la grammaire touareg " 
(Paris, 1896), p. 61. 

^ Hanoteau, "Grammaire tamachek' " (Paris, i860), p. 84. Cf. above, 
" Paul a atebod nid Pedr." 

^ Ibid., p. 100. The French translation of these sentences begins in each 
case with " c'est " or " ce sont." 

■* Eelkassem Ben Sediva, " Cours de langue kabyle " (A'ger, 1887), p. civ. 



632 APPENDIX B. 

known in Kabyle ; but the last two instances show that even in 
Tamashek' the simple form is used after the pure relative, just as 
in the Welsh renderings given the third person singular, or rather 
the impersonal, Hadod is used after the expressed subject a, 
although its antecedent is in one case first person singular and in 
the other third plural. In spite of our grammars, no Welshman 
would venture in speaking to say fiadsafit for iiaSod in such a 
sentence as the last quoted, for fear of being laughed at. So we 
have in the Gododin Gwyr a aeth Gattraeth^ (not aethant), 
" the men who went to Cattraeth." So in Egyptian also : 

Egyptian : fia roiu a sem er fesf.^ 

Welsh : y gwyr a aeth i('r) wlad. 

English : the men who went into (the) country. 

It is worthy of remark that the so-called participle of the 
Tamashek' verb " to be," Ulan, corresponds in use to the Welsh 
syt, " who is," " who am," etc. The third person singular, ilia, 
corresponds to the Welsh 7nae ; as ilia r'our-i aiis, Welsh mae 
gettnyf geffyl, " is with me horse," that is, I have ahorse; and 
imous usually corresponds to yw (when the relative is the comple- 
ment), thus, afiamahal a imous, Welsh gwas (a) yw, " servant that 
he is," i.e., he is a servant ; ma imous aoua, Welsh pivy yw hwn, 
"who is this?" 

I am tempted to think that the resemblance between Ulan and 
s\^ goes deeper than the surface, for the final n of Ulan seems to 
be, like the r^ of syd, a pronominal suffix. When the verb is pre- 
ceded by a particle, the suffix n (as is usual with Berber suffixes) 
becomes attached to the particle ; so they say in Tamashek', for 

^ Skene, op. cit. , p. 64, etc. In the very few passages of the Ciododin 
where a is followed by a plural verb, a is almost certainly the object oi the verb. 
In Williams's hymn : 

" Fy meiau trymion, luoed maith, 
A waedod lua'r nen " 

(181 1 ed., p. 742), 

the ignorant editors of the new C. M. hymn-book have changed a waeTtoTi m\.o 
7('aeitasa»e, because meiau is plural, evidently thinking that this is the subject, 
and that the verb should ag^rec with it. 
- Brugsch, op, cit., p. 20. 



APPENDIX B. 633 

"which is not," not our t7/a-n, but our-n elli} just as we say in 
Welsh, not na s-yd, but na-d oes. Thus the Tamashek' ma illaii, 
jiia our n-ellil "what is, what is not? " i.e., what news ? would be 
in Welsh beth s-vd, beth iia-d oes ? 

Sydd is the only distinctively relatival form in Welsh ; but in 
Irish the regular verb has a relatival inflexion, with singular and 
plural forms, used like the Tamashek' '• participe." These forms, 
as Professor Rhys has pointed out, are derived from the Aryan 
present participle with some (probably pronominal) suffix. Thus 
the Berber relatival verb with its pronominal suffix, which suggests 
a " participe " to the grammarians, corresponds to the Irish 
relatival verb formed from the Aryan participle apparently with 
some such suffix. 

With regard to the position of the adjective and the genitive, it 
will suffice simply to mention that they follow the noun, as in 
Egyptian.- 

If we adopt Prof, de Lacouperie's ideological notation,-' the 
above observations on the order of words in the sentence may be 
summarised thus : the syntactical indices of primitive Aryan are 

1, 3, 5, 8, III. ; those of neo-Celtic, 2, 4, 6, 7, IV. ; of Hamitic, 

2, 4, 6, 7, IV. Thus neo-Celtic differs from primitive Aryan on 
every point, and agrees on every point with Hamitic. 

■ 2. The suffixed pronouns in Tamashek' are the following : — 

Singular: i, /, ou ; 2, mas. k, fem. m ; 3, s, t. Plural: i, nei- ; 

2, mas. houn, fem. hemet ; 3, mas. sen, ten, fem. setiet, tenet. 

The suffixes are added to prepositions and nouns in the same 

manner as in Egyptian, and the Celtic parallels need not be 

repeated. But it may be noted here that "to have " is expressed 

in Berber, as in Welsh and Irish, by means of the verb " to be " 

and a preposition with the necessary suffix ; thus, Tamashek' ilia 

rUmr-ek, Welsh mae ge?myt, Irish ta le'at, " is with thee," i.e., thou 

hast. So also in Coptic, oii-fita-i, "io he (e di mi)," ou-nta-k, " tu 

hai (e di tu)." ^ The verb " to be " is usually omitted in the present 

^ Hanoteau, op. cit., p. 89. The vowel change after our is not peculiar to 
the " participe" j see i/nd., p. 88. 

Rene Basset, " Manuel de langue kabyle," pp. 61, 67. 

"Trans. Phil. Soc," 1S85-7, p. 399. 
"* Rossi, op. cit., p. 108. 



634 APPENDIX B. 

tense in Kabyle ; ^ it may be omitted in Tamashek' ; it may also 
be omitted in Irish. 

In the Berber languages the suffixes are not used to form finite 
verbs, but a conjugation with purely inflexional prefixes and 
suffixes has been evolved, evidently under the influence of Arabic, 
for the prefixes agree too closely with those of the Arabic aorist 
to have been developed independently. It is perhaps due to the 
same influence that the habit has grown of making the verb agree 
with its subject. This, however, is by no means always done ; 
we have seen that there is no agreement when the relative is the 
subject ; and even when the subject is a plural noun following its 
verb " raccord peut n'etre pas absolu en apparence entre le verbe 
et son sujet." ~ 

The pronominal suffixes in Berber are added to the verb to 
denote the object direct or indirect : thus, Kabyle izera-thent^'' 
Welsh, gwe/oct-hzvy?it, " he saw them " ; Tamashek' ekfet-i-tet,^ 
Welsh rhowch-i77xi-hi, " give (pi.) to me her," give her me. 

When the verb is preceded by a particle or a relative or inter- 
rogative pronoun, the pronominal suffix v/hich denotes the object 
is attached, not to the verb, but to the particle or pronoun. This 
is also the case in Welsh and Irish ; and the suffixes so placed 
between the particle and the verb are called by Zeuss " infixed 
pronouns." Thus, Berber and neo-Celtic absolutely agree in the 
rendering of such phrases as the following : 

Tamashek' : mtout-\, but our-K eot{iter\^ 

Welsh : trawoa-v\, but ^-z/'-'th drewais. 

English : he struck me, not thee struck I. 

Kabyle : izera-in, but a?ioii-a ith izerati.^ 

Welsh: gwe/o^-'E.¥, hni yrhwn-a'i givelott. 

English : he saw him, he who him saw. 

Three examples of the suffix with a relative are given, with their 

' Basset, op. cit., p. 15. 

" Masqueray, op. cit., p. 62. 

•' Basset, op. cit., p. 16. 

■* Hanoteau, op. cit., p. 96. 

'" Ihid., pp. 95-6. 

^ Basset, op. cit., p. 16. 



APPENDIX B. 635 

Welsh equivalents, in i above. Examples of the suffix so placed 
as indirect object are common in older Welsh and Irish ; e.g., 
Welsh fiPu oes, " non mihi est." ^ 

The objective suffix does not seem to be added to the particle 
in Egyptian, so that the construction was developed in Western 
Hamitic only. But the detachability of the suffix results in a very 
similar construction in Egyptian, where the subjective suffix is 
attracted by negative and some other particles, " de maniere que 
les pronoms se trouvent parfois ajoutes a la partiade au lieu 
d'occuper leur place apres le verbe."^ 

Of course a suffixed pronoun can only be used where there is 
something to support it ; and as a pronoun is often required to 
stand in an absolute state or as complement of an implied verb 
" to be," Welsh and Irish, like Egyptian and Berber, have series 
of independent pronouns to be used for this purpose ; as Welsh 
mi, minnau, myfi, myfinnau, Tamashek' nek, nekkou, nekkounan, 
nekkouder, " I," Sometimes, in Berber, " nous avons affaire a un 
redoublement du pronom lui-meme " : ^ in Welsh, we have a whole 
series of these pronouns formed by reduplication, myfi, tydi, nyni, 
etc. The grammatical resemblance between neo-Celtic and Hamitic 
is strikingly shown in the classification of personal pronouns. Zeuss 
in his great " Grammatica Celtica " distinguishes three classes in 
Celtic, which he calls absoluta, infixa, suffixa, but ias the i^ifixa 
are only a variety of the suffixa we have really two classes, 
absoluta and suffixa. So the Berber personal pronouns are classi- 
fied into isoles and affixes,^ and the Egyptian into assoluti and 
suffissi. '" 

3. Berber conjugation has only one form, which is commonly 
used in a past sense, but it may be made present by internal 
vowel change. The deficiency of tense-forms is supplemented 
partly by periphrastic conjugation, but chiefly by prefixing a 
particle to the simple verb. 

The more common method of periphrastic conjugation is that 

1 " Ant. Ling. Brit. Rudim.," p. 177. 

2, Brugsch, op. cit., p. 66. Italics his own. 

^ Basset, " Etudes sur les dialectes berberes" (Paris, 1894), p- 78- 

"• Hanoteau, op. cit., p. 32 ; Basset, " Manuel," p. 10. 

' Rossi, op. cit., p. 51- 



636 APPENDIX B. 

in which the personal verb is preceded by a personal form of the 
verb "to be," as e/Iir zrir'} "was-I saw-I," />., I had seen. This 
form is discussed under 3 (l)) above. Traces of the form with the 
preposition are also found, in which, however, the verbal noun 
after the preposition is replaced by a personal verb, as ellir d'a 
zerrer\ " I was seeing." " The alternative, and by far the most 
common, method of denoting time may originally have been the 
last-mentioned form without its verb "to be"; but in effect it is 
merely the prefixing of a particle to a personal verb ; thus, erser, 
" I descended," ad' erser, " I shall descend." ' The particles 
so used are, in Kabyle, ad' and r'a to mark the future, and ai 
to specially mark the past. ^ 

Although Welsh and Irish with their Aryan tenses have little 
need of such helps, tense-particles are a familiar phenomenon 
in these languages also, especially in the older periods — such is 
the persistence of an old habit of speech. In Irish fio is the sign 
of an incomplete action, and is used before the present and future 
tenses; ro and do denote completed action, and are generally found 
with a past tense : ^ ''''ro gives d^preterite signification to the present 
indicative and to the present of habit." ■^ In mediaeval Welsh dy 
is occasionally met with, and ry very frequently. Thus Kabyle 
ai zrir is Welsh ry ivekis, " vidi." 

These tense- particles in Berber, like other particles, attract the 
objective pronominal suffixes, which are thus placed between them 
and the verb. This is also the case in Welsh and Irish, where 
tense-particles may be followed by Zeuss's " pronomina infixa." 
Thus Tamashek' ad-\-ifihi, "he will see me,'^ ad-A^-enner' , "I shall 
tell him."*^ Compare Irish, No-i-alim, "I beseech thee" ro-\\-gab, 
"he seized me")' Welsh ry-in-ivelas^ "saw thee." 

' Basset, " Manuel," p. 32. 

- Ibid., p. 32. 

'•'• Ibid., p. 27. 

■* Zeuss-Ebel, 411 seqi]. The particle is do always in modern Irish; see 
O'Donovan, p. 157. 

'• Windisch, op. cit., p. 70. 

'' Hanoteau, op. cit., pp. 96-7. 

'' Windisch, op. cit., pp. 134-5. 

■^ Skene, op. cit , p. 56. Zeuss says Welsh ry is an exception (p. 373), but 
surely instances like the above are far from rare. Cf. >y m gchvi)-, Skene, p. 1 5S>. 



APPENDIX B. 637 

4. As the Berber verbal system has been profoundly modified 
under Semitic influence, the equivalent of the Egyptian em is hardly 
to be found in it, though some of the verbal particles have often a 
distinct prepositional force. The equivalent of em before an adjective 
must also be rare, since statements such as " thou art mighty " 
(Egyptian unti-ek em user) are usually expressed by turning the 
complement into a verb, as can also be done in Egyptian {iiser-ek). 
But we have a distinct trace of the old preposition in d\ " in," 
placed before the adjective in such expressions as aaoiidiou agui 
d' amellal} Welsh [mae^r) ceffyl hwn yn wyn, "this horse is white"; 
or in comparative statements such as netta d' ar ezfan fell-i,~ Welsh 
{niae) efe yn fwy na-mi, " he is bigger than I." 

The whole structure of the neo-Celtic sentence and nearly all its 
distinctively non-Aryan features are embraced in the principles 
discussed above, and have been shown to have parallels in Hamitic. 
There are many minor points of resemblance which are important 
only as supplementing the above general principles. A few of 
these may be mentioned here. 

5. The pleonastic use of a pronominal sufifix after a preposition 
governing a relative, e.g., Irish, an fear a raibh Mi ag caint leis, "the 
man who7n thou wert talking to him." This is considered incorrect 
by O'Donovan,^ but it is common to Irish, Welsh, Berber,^ and 
Egyptian. In Welsh, " the relative will stand alone at the com- 
mencement of the clause, and the preposition will follow the verb 
with a proper pronominal sufifix";^ in Egyptian, "il relativo pre- 
cede la frase, e la preposizione e rimandata alia fine, e spesso 
ricongiunta col soggetto per mezzo di un afiisso pronominale."*' 

6. The omission of the copula, which is so characteristic of 
Hamitic, especially after a pronoun. Egyptian, nuk Hor, "I (am) 

^ Belkassem Ben Sedira, op. cit., p. cxxvi. 

'^.Basset, " Manuel," p. 68. The prepositional meaning of d' given in the 
glossary of the "Manuel" (p. 50*) are "avec" and "dans." Compare the 
Irish adverbial co and in. 

' P. 376. 

■* Basset, op. cit, p. 21. 

' Hughes, "Welsh Syntax," in the "Transactions of the Aberffraw Royal 
EisteSfod," 1849, p. 175. 

^ Rossi, op. cit., p. 72. 



638 APPENDIX B. 

Horus";^ T 3im3ishek' , nekkou Mokhammed, "I (am) Mohammed" ;2 
Welsh, Mi Ysco/an, "I (am) Yscolan"'^ (the last two in answer to 
an inquiring stranger) ; Irish, fu ar g-cruthuightheoir, " thou (art) 
our creator" ; •• Welsh, p7vy y rnanhatvc, "who (is) the knight?" " 

7. The amplification of the negative by a noun placed after the 
verb, like the French /a^; thus Kabyle OUR-/^ zerir ara, Welsh 
literally Ni 'th welais ©IM, " je ne t'ai pas vu." This is common 
to Irish, ^ Welsh, Berber, and Coptic ; 7 and may not the French 
construction have the same origin ? 

8. The numerals in Welsh are usually followed by a singular 
noun, tri dyn, "three man." This is probably an extension of 
the original construction as found in Irish, where all plural 
numerals take plural nouns, except twenty and higher multiples 
of ten, which take the singular.^ Most of the Berber dialects 
have adopted the Arabic numerals ; I have been able to examine 
only two in which the ancient system of numeration is preserved ' 
and in these all plural numerals take the plural, except twenty and 
other multiples of ten, which take the singular in Zenaga '^ and the 
genitive singular (with a preposition) in Tamashek'.^" 

In the above comparisons I have confined myself strictly to 
syntax, and have not ventured to suggest any phonetic equation. 
But there is one point of contact which it is not easy to pass by. 
Perhaps the most remarkable fact of Celtic phonology is the 
total disappearance of Aryan / in Welsh and Irish. In Berber, 

' Renouf, op. cit., p. 24. 

- Hanoteau, op. cit., p. 244. 

^ Skene, op. cit., p. 42. 

'' (I'Donovan, p. 365. 

'" " Mabinogion," p. 211. 

6 Zeuss-Ebel, p. 746. 

" Rossi, op. cit., p. 148. 

* O' Donovan strongly asserts that it is singular ; it is always found to be so 
when the nom. sing, differs in form from the gen. plur. It is not often that 
they can be distinguished even in older Irish, and if, as Zeuss says, genitives 
plur. occur, they are probably artificial. The fact that the same numerals 
take singular nouns in Scotch Gaelic shows that this construction is primitive 
Goidelic. 

3 Faidherbe, " Le Zenaga," p. 28. 

'" Hanoteau, op. cit., p. 129. 



APPENDIX B. 639 

" le / est excessivement rare, et ne se rencontre qu'en Zenaga." ^ 
There are difficulties in the way of connecting the two things, but 
the coincidence is certainly striking. 

The occurrence in Semitic of many of the modes of expression 
above quoted is due to the relation which undoubtedly exists 
between the Semitic and the Hamitic languages. Of the precise 
nature of this relation it is difficult to form a clear conception ; - 
but it seems to involve an intimate connection of some kind 
between the two families of speech in the prehistoric period, 
though they are probably not actually cognate. It is with 
Hamitic, however, rather than Semitic, that Celtic syntax is in 
agreement ; for, as we have seen, it agrees with Egyptian where 
both differ from Arabised Berber ; it also agrees with Berber where 
the latter differs markedly from Arabic, as, for instance, in the shift- 
ing of the pronominal suffix from the verb to a preceding particle.^ 
The case for the derivation as opposed to the independent 
development of these idioms in neo-Celtic is strengthened rather 
than weakened by their appearance in Semitic, since the connec- 
tion between Semitic and Hamitic is generally admitted. Some 
connection can probably be traced wherever any of them occur ; 
thus, in Persian, the pronominal suffixes attached to nouns and 
verbs, and the pleonastic pronoun after the relative (construction 5 
above) may be due to Semitic influence. Is the influence of a 
Hamitic substratum to be discovered in the simultaneous develop- 
ment on the same analytic lines of French, Spanish, and Italian, 
in their use of infixed and postfixed pronouns ? 

So far as I have been able to examine Basque, I have dis- 
covered little syntactical similarity between it and either Hamitic 
or Celtic. Some attempts have recently been made to connect it 
with Berber : there seems to be no reason why Basque should not 
contain a number of Iberian words ; but Van Eys doubts that it 
is related to Iberian, and Prince Lucien Bonaparte and others 
have tried to show that it is allied to Ugric, in which family Sayce 

' Basset, " Etudes," p. 4. 

^ See Budge, "The Mummy," 1893, pp. 3-5, where a resiune is given of 
the opinions of leading Egyptologists. 

■* " Cette particularite, qui rend uwbiles les pronoms regimes directs et 
indiiects, n'existe pas en arabe." — Belkassem Ben Sedira, op. cit. , p. clix. 



640 APPENDIX B. 

is inclined to class it.^ Taylor suggests that it is the language of the 
broad-headed French Basques, who belong chiefly to the Auvergnat 
race, and not of the long-headed Spanish Basques, who are chiefly 
Iberian. These views as to the affinities and original speakers 
of Basque accord with the frequently-expressed opinion that the 
Auvergnats or Savoyards are of the same stock as the Lapps.- 

That the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Britain were an offshoot of 
the North African race is shown by the cranial and physical 
similarity between the long-barrow men and the Berbers and 
Egyptians, and by the Hne of megalithic monuments which 
stretches from North Africa through Spain and the west of 
France to Britain, marking the route of the tribes in their migra- 
tion. It is not the object of this paper to dwell upon the 
anthropological evidence, but one further point may be mentioned. 
Schrader has proved beyond doubt that the primeval Aryan 
family was purely agnatic, counting every relationship through the 
father ; and Zimmer, in his remarkable paper " Das Mutterrecht 
der Pikten,"'^ has shown that the early inhabitants of Britain 
were cognatic : " Auf einen Piktenherrscher und seine Briider 
folgt nicht etwa der Sohn des altesten, sondern der Sohn der 
Sch wester."^ This state of things has come down to our own 
times among the Berbers : " Quand le roi meurt ou est depose, 
ce qui arrive assez souvent, ce n'est pas son fils qui est appele a 
lui succeder, mais bien le fils de sa soeur." ■' 

The idea of comparing neo-Celtic with Hamitic was suggested 
to me by the view just mentioned as to the origin of the Iberians. 
If they are the same people as those who speak Hamitic languages, 
then the explanation of neo-Celtic syntax which Basque had failed 
to supply was to be sought for, it seemed to me, in Hamitic. The 
appositeness of this comparison of idioms may be illustrated by 
supposing a parallel case. If Irish, like Iberian, had been 
irretrievably lost, and we were led by anthropological or other 

1 "Principles of Comp. Phil.," 2nd ed., pp. 21, loi. 

- De Ouatrefages, Topinard, and Dr. K. Cruel, quoted by Keane, 
"Ethnology," p. 405 ; A. C. Haddon, " Study of Man." p. 82. 
» " Zeitschrift fiir Rechtsgeschichte," xv., pp. 209 sa/^. 
■» 3id., p. 218. 
* Hanoteau, op. cit., p. xv. 



APPENDIX B. 641 

reasons to infer a relationship between this lost language and 
Welsh, a comparison of Irish-English with Welsh would suggest 
the derivation of the phrase, he is after comings from the Irish 
equivalent of mae ef wedi dyfod. Now, as Irish is fortunately 
not lost, we know this to be actually the case. Further, the per- 
sistence of idiom as compared with vocabulary is shown by the 
fact that, although each word in this phrase agrees in meaning in 
Welsh and Irish, not even the word for " after " is etymologically 
related (Welsh, wedi ; Irish, iar n-) ; and this goes some way to 
show that they are both translations of a pre-Celtic word. These 
two languages have diverged considerably in the matter of pho- 
netics ; is it likely that they would have independently evolved 
syntactical forms identical in the two languages, but differing from 
anything previously existing? The answer must be that these 
forms are not independently evolved, and do not differ from any- 
thing previously existing. The prevalence in Welsh and Irish of 
the very same analytical expressions shows that analysis, which is 
usually regarded as a modern development, goes back in these 
languages to the primitive period. It is the characteristic of the 
language of the people, and has been supposed to be modern only 
because it is not so apparent in the earlier literary language, 
which, besides being largely artificial, was based upon the dialect 
of a more or less Aryan aristocracy. 

J. MORRIS JONES. 

University College, Bangor, 
March, 1899. 



W.P, T T 



APPENDIX C. 

LIST OF LORDSHIPS UNITED TO FORM NEW 

COUNTIES OR ADDED TO EXISTING COUNTIES 

BY THE ST. 27 HENRY VII. C. 26. 

1. United to form Monmouthshire : — 

"The lordships, townships, parishes, commotes and cantreds 
of Monmouth, Chepstow, Matherne, Llanvihangel, Magour 
(joldecHffe, Newport, Wenllonge, Llanwerne, Caerlion, Usk, 
Trelech, Tintern, Skynfreth, Grousmont, Witecastle, Reglan, 
Calicote, Biston, Abergavenny, Penrose, Greenfield, Maghen, and 
Hochuyslade, in the country of Wales." 

2. United to form Brecknockshire : — 

" The lordships, townships, parishes, commotes and cantreds 
of Brecknock, Creckhowel, Tretowre, Penkelly, English-Talgarth, 
^Velsh-Talgarth, Dynas, the Haye, Glynebough, Bro}'ulles, Canter- 
cely, Lando, Blainllinby, Estrodew, Buelthe, and Lingros ^ in the 
said country or dominion of Wales." 

3. United to form Radnorshire : — • 

" The lordships, townships, parishes, commotes and cantreds 
of New Radnor, Elistherman, Elue-les, Bongbred, Glasbury, 
Glawdistre, Mihelles Church, Meleneth, Blewagh, Knighton, 
Norton, Preston, Commothuder, Rayder, Gwethronyon, and 
Stanage, in the said country of Wales." 

4. United to form Montgomeryshire : — 

" The lordships, townships, parishes, commotes and cantreds 
of Montgomery, Kedewenkerry, Cawisland, Arustely, Keviliock, 

' Lingers, according to Rastall. 



APPENDIX C. 643 

Doythur, Powesland, Clunesland, Balesley, Tempcester, and 
Alcester, in the said country of Wales." 

5. United to form Denbighshire : — 

"The lordships, townships, parishes, commotes and cantreds 
of Denbighland, Ruthin, Saint Taffe, Kinllethowen, Bromfilde, 
Yale, Chirke and Chirkeland, Molesdale,^ and Hopesdale, in the 
said country of Wales." 

6. Added to Shropshire : — , 

" The lordships, towns, parishes, commotes, hundreds, and 
cantreds of Oswester, Whetington, Masbroke, Knoking, Ellesmer, 
Downe, and Churbury hundred in the Marches of Wales." 

7. Added to Herefordshire : — 

" The lordships, towns, parishes, commotes, hundreds, and 
cantreds of Ewyas Lacy, Ewyas Harold, Clifford Wynforton, 
Yerdesley, Huntingdon, Whytney, Wygmore, Logharneys, and 
Stepulton in the said Marches of Wales." 

8. Added to Gloucestershire : — 

" The lordships, towns, and parishes of WoUastone, Tidnam, 
and Bechley, in the said Marches of Wales, and all honours, 
lordships, castles, manors, lands, tenements, and hereditaments 
lying or being Chepstow bridge in the said Marches of Wales and 
Gloucestershire." 

9. Added to Glamorganshire : — 

" The lordships, towns, parishes, commotes, hundreds, and 
cantreds of Gowerkilvy, Bishops Town, Llandaff, Singnithe supra, 
Singhnithe subtus, Maskin, Ogmore, Glynerotheney, Tallagarney, 
Ruthien, Tallavan, Llanblethyan, Lantwid, Tyeryal, Avan, Nethe, 
Landewi, and the Clays in the said country of Wales." 

10. Added to Carmarthenshire : 

"The lordships, towns, parishes, commotes, hundreds, and 
cantreds of Lanemthevery, Abermerlese, Kedwely, Eskenning, 
Cornewolthou, Newcastle, Emel, Aborgoyly, in the said country 
of Wales." 

1 Altered as to Molesdale by st. 33 Henry VIII., c. 13, s. 3. 

T T 2 



644 APPENDIX C. 

11. Added to Pembrokeshire : — 

"The lordships, towns, parishes, commotes, hundreds, and 
cantreds of Harverfordwest, Kilgarran, Lansteffan, Langeharne, 
otherwise called Tallangharne, Walwynscastle, Dewysland, Llan- 
nehadein, Lanfey, Herberth, Slebeche, Rosmarket, Castellan, and 
Landofleure, in the said country of Wales." 

12. Added to Cardiganshire : — 

"The lordships, town, parishes, commotes, hundreds, and 
cantreds of Tregaron, Glenergine, Landway, and Ureny, in the 
said country of Wales." 

13. Added to Merionethshire : — 

" The lordship, town, and parish of Mouthway, in the said 
country of Wales." 

N.B. — In the above extracts we have given the names spelt 
exactly as they appear in the Statute. 



APPENDIX D. 

NOTE ON THE WELSH LAWS. 

Since Chapter VL was printed the fifteenth report of the Royal 
Commission on Historical MSS. has been published.^ We 
find in it the following paragraph, which no doubt expresses 
the opinions of Mr. Gwenogvryn Evans, the Assistant Com- 
missioner who is charged with inspecting and reporting on 
Welsh MSS. :— 

"Manuscripts of the Welsh Laws are numerous, and those 
(written on vellum) at Peniarth, the British Museum, Oxford, and 
Cardiff have been inspected. The oldest copy is a Latin version 
of the last quarter of the twelfth century, and the next oldest is 
the Welsh version known as the Black Book of Chirk^ which can 
hardly be later than the year 1 200. Both these manuscripts are 
at Peniarth, and their texts contain the substance of the other 
numerous recensions of later date. The prologue of the Chirk 
Codex states simply that Howel Da, 'prince of all the Kymry,' 
finding no doubt much confusion in the administration of the law 
when his lordship extended over Gwyned and Powys in addition 
to Dyved, summoned six men from every commote, four laics and 
two clerics, to examine the customs and laws of his dominion and 
to deliberate thereon. As a result some of the old laws were 
confirmed, some amended, some abrogated, and some new ones 
enacted. These were afterwards solemnly promulgated and con- 
firmed in a general assembly attended according to the Latin text 
by ' all archbishops, bishops, abbots and priests.' But whether 
this took place before or after Howel's visit to Rome it is not 
stated. That Howel did go to Rome in 928 we know on the 

1 Parly. Paper (C — 9295) 1899. 



646 APPENDIX D. 

testimony of the Annales Cambrice and the Brut y Tyivysogion ; 
and if we may credit the prologues of the later manuscripts the 
object of his visit was to submit the codified laws to the approval 
of the Pope. This statement derives some colour from the words 
of an unedited thirteenth century manuscript at Peniarth, which 
declares that the Laws were drawn up in Latin, in order that the 
Church and the Pope might be able to judge of them, and that 
the common people might hold them in greater respect from 
their inability to understand them. Linguistic tests, too, tend to 
support this assertion of a Latin original, and probability enforces 
it. We should in this way get independent translations into 
Welsh, which would naturally give rise to what came later to be 
regarded as different ' Codes,' labelled respectively 'Venedotian,' 
' Demetian,' and ' Gwentian,' though Howel was never King of 
Gwent and Morgannwg. The Chirk Codex represents Welsh 
prose of any extent in its most primitive form, and the MS. must 
be regarded as a transcript of an earlier one. No one can doubt 
this who will compare its style with that represented by the frag- 
ments of the Mabinogion in a MS. of about 1230. In the latter 
we find Welsh prose at its best. How far the Laws of Howel are 
purely Welsh in their origin can never, probably, be determined, 
as no copy of the text in its original form is known to be now 
extant. The existing manuscripts refer to the ' Laws of Howel,' 
which would not be possible in a pure text ; and some of them 
have admittedly been revised by later princes. It is also instructive 
to note that the older the manuscript the fewer the triads it 
contains. The two oldest do not contain a single triad between 
them ! " 

As to the assertion of a Latin original, we wish to call 
attention to the reference in the Preface to the third book of the 
Venedotian Code to " Hen lyfr y Ty Gwyn " (/>., the " Old Book 
of the White House"), as one of the books from which lorwerth 
ab Madog compiled his Proof-book (see p. 182 above and notes 2 
and 4 thereto). The preface to this third Book is, if we understand 
A. Owen aright, to be found in the Black Book of Chirk (the MS. 
A on which he bases his text of the Venedotian Code, and which in 
the above extract is referred to as the oldest MS.). It looks like 



APPENDIX D. 647 

the genuine work of a Welsh lawyer making a new edition of the 
Proof-book. He expressly mentions as among his authorities 
three books of Welsh judges or lawyers who were, according to 
the independent Preface of the Demetian Code, present at Howel's 
assembly. Of course, it may be that " Hen lyfr y Ty Gwyn " was 
in Latin, but we think it very improbable, not only because we 
can hardly suppose the Welsh judges and lawyers of the tenth or 
even the twelfth century to have been conversant wiih Latin, but 
because we think the main practical object of the Ty Gwyn 
convention was to promulgate an authoritative written set of laws 
which the king's officers could consult at all times for guidance — 
an object which would only be imperfectly attained by simply 
publishing a Latin book. We gather from A. Owen's Preface 
(" Anc. Laws," vol. i. p. xxxii.) that the first Latin version given 
in his collection is printed from the MS. referred to in the 
paragraph quoted above. There the Welsh technical terms are 
given first, and a Latin translation added in brackets. Thus : — 
"i. penteulu [prefectus familie] ; ii. secundus offeyrat teulu [sacerdos 
familie]." (" Anc. Laws," vol. ii. p. 749.) The inference we draw 
from this — not a certain, but a probable one — is that the Latin text 
is a translation. The fact that the Venedotian Code is of greater 
length than the earliest Latin version may of course be accounted 
for by additions made from time to time ; but a comparison of the 
arrangement and treatment of the various topics or sets of rules 
suggests to us that the Venedotian Code conforms more nearly 
to what we infer was the form of the original Book of the 
Law, and that the Latin version, except as to the laws of the 
household or court, is an abridgement of some earlier work. 
The Venedotian Code as printed by Owen seems a new edition 
of an earlier work which was divided into three parts: — (i.) the 
laws of the court, (ii.) the laws of the country, and (iii.) the 
Proof-book or three columns of laws ; and it looks as if lorwerth 
ab Madog was editor and compiler ; that in dealing with the first 
and second books of the original work he only added or modified, 
but when he came to the third book he found that the rules 
actually in force had so greatly changed from those contained in 
the old authorities that he made a fresh compilation, bringing the 



648 APPENDIX D. 

book up to date, as we should say. But while we think on the 
materials before us that the " Old Book of the White House" was 
in Welsh, it may well be that before the assembly was held a 
Latin version of the Welsh Laws had been prepared under 
Howel's auspices, and it may be that it was this book that was 
approved by the Pope when he visited Rome in 928. Notice, 
too, that the Canones Wallici contain texts identical with some 
in Owen's second Latin version. (See above, p. 177.) 

On p. 184 we have given Owen's translation of the title of the 
triads in his Book xiii. (" Anc. Laws," ii., p. 474). It has been 
supposed that the word "mote" which he employs means moot 
or meeting, and the word "tar," cart or waggon. This is erroneous. 
The Welsh word dud has reference to motion ; and Owen probably 
used "mote" as equivalent to Latin nwtus^z. moving. Car^oQ.% mean 
a carriage or van ; but car signifies a friend or kinsman. So the 
most likely translation of this obscure title is — " Triads of movings 
and kin-movings," or " of Sittings and kin-flittings." Motion 
seems the constant or essential conception in the mind of the 
composer of these triads, but no one word — neither " mote " nor 
any other — can be used throughout the series. The first triad, 
if our translation is right, refers to the travellings or circuits of 
professional persons or craftsmen. So perhaps we may render 
the first triad thus : — " the three roving professionalisms : bardism, 
metallurgy, and harp-playing " ; and the second thus : — " the 
three things that constitute a travelling (or nomadic) home : race, 
status, and war." In triad xxiii. we find the king's cylch (circuit 
or progress) referred to. In triads x., xxviii., and xxxiii., we have, 
however, apparently a van {car) introduced. This is probably 
due to the transcriber of the MS., or to the editor. From a 
lawyer's point of view, the whole book looks very forced and 
artificial. 



INDEX OF NAMES AND OTHER 
WORDS. 



a, 3 

Aballac, 42 

Abber, 65 

Abber-deon, 64 

Aberdare, Lord, 492, 498-500, 512 

Aberdaron, 301, 464 

Aberdovey, 295 

Aberffraw, 135, 144, 146, 422 

Aberffraw, King of, 188, 229 

Abergwili, 162 

Aberhondu, 281 

Aber.iech, 286 

Aberitwchwr, 284 

Aberiiynog, 465 

Aber Rheidol, 310 

Aberteifi, Aberteivi, 254, 315 

Abertowy, 166 

Aberystwyth, 339, 492-4, 500 

Abloyc, 120 

ach ac edryu, 244 

ackafi, 29 

Acstyn, 525 

Adamnan, 50, 64, 72, 97 

Adminios, 41 

Adpar, 531 

adscript! glebas, 216, 223, 401, 408 

Aedan ab Blegored, 161 

^Ifgar, 167-171, 173 

^Ifnoth, the Sheriff, 170 

Mlired, 146, 148-150, 306 

.^stii, 62 

^tern, 106 

^thelflaed, ^thelflaeda, 150, 163 

jEthelfrith, 107, 109, 151 

^thelred, Ealdorman, 150 

jEthelred, the Unraedig, 161 

jEthelstan, 149, 151, 153 

..Ethelstan, Bishop, 169 

ag, oc, 630 



Agricola, 83, 96, 112 
agwedi, 211, 213 
aiiit, 214, 216, 400 
Airem, 445 
Aires, Airiss, 50 
Alba, Alban, 77, 115-6 
Albanus, 115 
Albinus, 97 
Albio, 75-6, 81 
''AKISiov, 'AXPlaii', 77 
Albionum, Insula, 77 
Aleecht, loi 
Alfred of Beverley, 28 
AUectus, 99, loi 
Allobrox, 26 
Alnet, 323 
Alti, 51 

Alvryd, 156, 158 
Alyth, loi 
ailfro, 26 
aittud, atttudion, 

400 
am, 625 
Amaethon, 37 
Amalech, 42 

Amaury de Montfort, 334 
amherawdyr, 105 
Ammianus Marcellinus, 102, iii 
ammod dedfol, 225 
ammodwr, ammodwyr, 211, 225 
amobr, 209 
amour courtois, 505 
Amserau, the, 78, 534 
Amwythig, 274 : see Pengwern 
Ana, Anu, 42-3, 55: see Anna 
Anainne, 55 
Anarawd, 144-5, 147-9 
Anastatius III., 183 
Anatemori, 17 
Ancalites, 92 



191-2, 197, 214-5, 



650 



INDEX. 



"^Anderida, iii 
Aneurin, Book of, 76 
Angharad v. Maredud, 173 
anghj'farch, 234 
Angle, 27 

Angles, the, 105, 107, 109 
Anglesey, 95, 112 
Anglia Transwalliana, 29 
Anluan, 49 

Anna, 41-43, 55, 132-3 : sec Aun 
Annales Cambrias, 42, 109, 132 
anniuiged, 40 
annodeu, 234 
Anton, 70 
Antoninus Pius, 96 
Anwyl, Prof., 622 
Apocalypse, the, 595-6 
Araide, 52 

Aranrot, 37 : see Arianrhod 
d'Arbois de Jubainville, M., 32 
"Apx"'"'''os', 74 
arderchawc o goron, 39 
Ardoch, 113 
Ard-ri, 135 
ardelw, 234-6 
ardelwr, 193 

Arden v. Robert ab Seisyrlt, 164 
aref buyait, 253 

arglwyd, 190-3. 195-6, 205, 240, 438 
Argyle, 81 
argyvreu, 2og, 213 
Arianrhod, 37-8, 69 
Armageddon, 596 
Armagh, Book of, 52 
Arnulf of Montgomery, 282, 289 
Arras, 5 
Art Corb, 73 
Art Oenfer, 67 
arth, 68 

Arthen, K. of Keredigion, 137, 140 
Arthgen, 140 : sec Arthen 
Arthur, 45, 592 
arwaesav, 234-5 
Arwystli, 409 
Ashton, Charles, 532, 609 
Asser, 141, 145 
Atecotti, 102 
Atrebates, 5, 91, in 
Augusta, III 
Aulus Plautius, 90, 93 
Aun, An, Anau, 41-2 : see Ana, 

Anna 
Aurelius Victor, 99 
Avaiion, 592 
avi, 47 



Avienus, 77 

Avitoria, 18 

Avittoriges, 18 

Avonmore, 99 

Aymon, Edmond, Einion, 343 

Ayre, Point of, 27, 525 



B 



Babington, W. D,, 35 

Bagaudae, 99 

Bailey, Sir J, R., 541. 559 

Balbriggan, 114 

Baldwin, Archbishop, 313 

Baner Cymru, 534 

Bangor, 486-7, 490, 493, 496 

bardic names, 257 

bard teulu, 254 

baronetcies, 450 

Barrfhinn, 74 

Barrivendi, 74 

Barrow, 60, 88 

Barry, Edmond, 52, 58 

barthes, 518-9 

Basque, 17, 639, 640 

bastardy. 357, 584 

Batavi, 86 

Batavia, 99 

Batavodurum, 86 

Bathurst, 67 

Baxter, Richard, 480 

Bede, 107 

BeAepioi/, 78 

Belerium, 75, 78, 81 

Br/AT/crajui, 22 

Belgae, 5, 93, in 

Beli, 38-44, 132-3 

Beli wirawt, 43 

Belinus, 131 

Belkassem Ben Sedira, 631, 637, 639 

Bellinus, 41 

belre, 78 

Bendigeitvran, 38 

Bera, Ijeara, Beirre, 58 

Berba, 60 

Berber, 630, 635, 638-9 

Berhthari, 74 

ber-iau, 249 

Bericos, 93 

Bernard de Newmarch, 281, 289 

Bernicia, 107 

Berry, Major-Gen,, 449 

Bertrand, M., 32, 83 



INDEX. 



651 



Berwick, N., 116 

beurla, 78 

Bible, the Welsh, 461, 480, 606-7 

bibliolatry, 607 

Bibroci, 92 

Bile, 43 

Billig, 6 

Birch, Mr., 628 

Btpyos, 88 

Bishop, Ch., 456 

Bishop, L., 456 

Bivadon, 65 

Black Book of Carmarthen, the, 627 

Black Book of Chirk, the, 645 

Black Death, the, 362, 404, 418 

blaenor, 588 

Blanch Parry, 280 

blease, 29 

Bledyn ab Cynfyn, 173, 185, 226, 

269-272, 277, 306 
Bledyn Vard, 342 

Blegywryd, Blegored, 179, 181, 183 
blyned, 45 
Bodedern, 600-1 
Boderia, 113 
Bodewryd, 602 
Bodotria, 113 
Bonaparte, Prince L., 639 
bonedig, bonedigion, 191, 204-5, 207, 

440, 445 
Bononia, 99 
Boudicca, 95 
Boulogne, 99 
Bouovii'Sa, 88 
Boyne, 88 
bracae, 567 
Bradley, H., 94 
braint, 191-2, 202, 218, 223 
Bramwell, Lord, 494 
Bran, 38-9-41, 44 
Branwen, 38 
Brecheiniog, 134-5 
Breci, mucoi, 53 
Breidin, 95 

brenin, brenhin, 109, 134, 137, 190 
Brennus, 131-2 
Bretagne, 6, 7, 77 
Bretain, Bretan, 6, 77 
Bretons, 77 
BpeTTai'Oi, "]& 
Bretwalda, 108, 121 
breve regis, 356 
Brewys, William, 319-20; see Wm. 

de Braose 
breyr, breyriaid, 171, 204, 208, 225 



Briamail Flou, 568 

Bricriu's Feast, 53 ; see Fled Bricrenn 

Bride's Major, St., 595 

Bridgenorth, 290 

briduw, 225 

Brigantes, 85-6, 94-8, 105, 112 

Brigantio, 86-7 

Brigstocke, W. O., 541, 555 

Briotus, Brutus, 115 

Bristol, 171 

Britannia, Britania, 77 

Britannia Prima, etc., 104 

Britannica lingua, 62 

Brittanni, Britanni, Brittani, 6, 75-7, 

III 
Brittones, 6, 77, 105 
Bro Morgannwg, 30 
Brocmail ab Meurig, 146 
Broho, 52 
Broinienaspoi, 50 
Bron yr Erw, 272 
Bromfield and Yale, 418 
Browyr, 29 

Bruce, Hon. W. N., 500 
Brude, Brute, 88 
Brugsch, M., 619, 623, 625 
Brun, 149, 153 
brychan, 251 
Brychtyn, 525 

Bryn Roberts, Mr., M.P., 499 
Brynmor-Jones Q.C., M.P., David, 

498 
Brytanawl teyrnas, no 
Brython, 6, 77 
Buain, mocu, 52 
Buaitt, 134-5, 328 
Buanainne, 55 
Buanann, 42, 55 
Budge, Mr., 639 
budr, 113 
Bulkeley-Owen, the Hon. Mrs., 

440, 
Bulkley, Sir Richard, 51S-9 
Bullock Hall, Mr., 32 
Burginatium, 86 
Burns, Robert, 583 
Bute, the Marquis of, 500, 514 
bwa, bua, 253 
bwdran, 563 
Bychtyn, 525 

C 

Cadeit ab Rhodri, K. of Powys, 
137, 140, 143-5, 147-9 



652 



INDEX 



Cadfael, 74 

Cadfan, 74, loS 

Cadog, 74 

Cadroe, Life of St., 79 

Caduallo, 45 : see Cadvvaiion 

CadwaladrabCadwatton, 106, 10S-9, 

121, 123, 125-6, 136-9, 322, 593 
Cadwaladr ab Gruffyd, 308-12 
Cadwarton ab Cadfan, 45, 74, 107 
Cadwaiton ab Howel Drvvg, 158, 160 
Cadwarion ab leuaf, 160-1 
Cadwaiton Lawhir, 44-5 
Cadwgan ab Bledyn, 271, 276, 281-3, 

286-7, 289-91, 293-5, 297, 299, 

302, 306 
Caereinion, 298 
Caerleon, 27, 82, 247 
Caerwys, Cayroes, 517-20 
Caesar, 32, 36-7, 41, 53, 76, 83, 85, 

88-90, 92 
caethion, 191 
Caint, 78 
Cairbre Muse, 57 
Caldey, 218 : see Ynys Byr 
Caledo, Caledones, 46, 62, loi 
Caledonii, 97, 102 
Caligula, 41 
Calleva, 82, gi 
Calvus Patricii, 24, 71 
cam, 20 

Cambridge, 478 
Campestres, 46 
Campsie, 46 
camlwrw, 227, 238-9 
Camulodunon, 89, go, 94-5 
Camulogenos, 63 
Camulos, 63, 8g 
can, 78 
candra, 73 
Candraraja, 73 
cangheiior, igo, ig2, 195, 202 
Caninefates, 86 
canilaw, 242-3 
Cantii, 6 

Cantion, Cantium, 6, 75-8, 11 1 
cantref, 190, 612-6 
Cantref, the, 9, 10 
Cantref Mawr, 310, 314 
Canutulachama, 47 
Canwyit y Cymry, 505 
Capel Colman, 465 
caput, 20, per capita, 397 
car, 648 
car, 20, 648 
Caradog, 38-41 



Caradog of Lancarfan, 124-6, 136-9, 
144. 159, 174. 177 

Caradog ab Owain, 270-1 

Caradog ab Gruffyd ab Rhyderch, 
173, 270 

Caradog, K. of Gwyned, 139 

Carataci Nepus, 47 

Caratacos, 40-1, 91-5 

Caratauc, 91, 139 : see Caradog, 
Caratacos 

Carausius, 97, gq, loi 

Cardiff, 247-8, 281, 493-4, 496 

Cardigan, 516 

Cargludau, Triads of the, 184, 648 

Carlingford, Lord, 494 

cartlawedrog, 232 

Carmarthen, 248 

Carnarvon, 27 

Carter, Isaac, 531 

Cartismandua, 95 

Cassi, 92 

Cassibellanus, 45: see Cassivellaunos 

Cassiterides, 61 

Kaacr'iTfpos, 61 

Cassivellaunos, 41, 45, go 

Caswatton, 38, 41, 44-5 

Castle Martin, 558 

castra, 20 

Catabor, Catabar, 52 

Catamanus, 108 ; see Cadfan 

Catelauni, 89 

Cateti, 140: scfc' Cadeit 

Cathbad, 68-g 

Catuvellauni, 8g, 90, 92-4, 112 

Catwg, 74 

Cauci, 85 

Cawdor, Earl of, 492, 558 

Cead walla, 127 : see Cadwation 

ceann, 7 

Cebur, B. of St. Asaph, 183 

Cedivor, 277 

Cein, 44 

ceiniog baladyr, 230-1 

Ceiriog, the Wood of, 311 

Ceitweyt, 236 

Celtic Christianity, 458-9 

Celtican, 4, 12, 76 

cenedl, 191-2, ig4-6, 230 

Cenimagni, g2-3 

Cennfhinn, 73 

Ceretic, 120 

cesad, 87 

ceseil-iau, 249 

cess noinden, 69 

Cessair, Cessar, 59-61 



INDEX. 



653 



cessavit per biennium, 443 

Get mac Matach, 49 

Cetyil, 136, 143 

Chalons, 89 

Charles I., 33, 386 

Charles V. of France, 344 

Charles, David, 489-91 

Charles, Thomas, 482, 506-7 

Cheshire, 601 

Chester, 21, 151, 163, 173, 247, 326 

Chester, Lord Bishop of, 499 

Chauchi, Chauci, 85 : see Cauci 

Chichester, 92 

chief, 20 

Chirk, the Black Book of, 185, 645-6 

Chlorus, 99, loi 

Church, the Welsh, 245 

Cilgerran, 318 

Cimbri, 80 

Cinbelin, 91 

Cinnan, 138 : see Kynan 

Cint, 88 

Circin, Terra, 65 

Circuits, the Welsh, 378-9, 390, 

392-4 
Cirencester, 104 
Cirgin, 65 : see Gerginn 
Ciric, 65 : see Gerg 
Ciricus, St., 65 
Civil War, the, 33 
Clare, House of, 297 
Claudius, 92-3 
Clawd Offa, 140-1 
cledyf, 253 
Clifford, Roger, 339 
Clocaenog, 3 
Clun, 526 

Clwyd, the Vale of, 171, 173-4 
Clydai, 17 

Clydawc, Clydog, 151 
Gnegumi, fili, 17 
cnocio, 583 
Cnut, 161, 163-4 
CO, go, 630 
Cobranor — , 48 
Codes, the, 180-85 
Coelin, 119 
Coeman, 656 
cof liys, 242 
Cogidumnos, 92 
Coil Hen, 132-3 
Coimagni, 65 

Colleges, the Theological, 483 
Colonsay, 52 
Coloso, in, 51 



Golumba, 83 

Comes Britannise, 103, 105 

Gomes Lit. Saxonici, 103 

Commios, gi-2 

Commission of 1S46, 484 

Commodus, 97 

commote, commot, 352, 612-6 : see 

cymwd 
commorthas, 367 
Compton, Lord, 385 
Gonall Cernach, 49 
Gonan, 136, 138 ; see Kynan 
Conchobar, 15, 54, 68 
Condla, 67 

Congen ab CadeS, 143 
Conn, 58, 67 

Conway, Conwy, 100, 125, 335 
Conway, treaty of, 335 
copies of Court-rolls, 419 
Cor, 52 
Goran, 67 
Corb, 73 

corbeille de mariage, 212 
Gorbipoi, 50 
Gore Duibne, 57-8 
Gorco Duibne, 52, 58 
Coriondi, -ae, 85 
Goritavi, Goritani, 93, 112 
Cork, 88 
Corkaguiny, 52 
Gormac, 25, 42, 50, 55, 77-8 
corn, 112 

Cornandus, 183 : see Gornardus, 184 
Cornavii, 112 
Cornet, castle of, 344 
Cornewall, Thomas, 360-1 
Cornish people, the, 141 
cornu, 112 
Cornwall, 112, 142 
coroners, 380 
Coroticus, 63 
Gorwen, 311, 605 
Cothi, Lewis Glyn, 45 
Counties, the, 642-4 
County Palatine, the, 347 
court chairs, 201 
court officers, 199 
court servants, 197 
Court of Chancery, 364, 375, 391-2 
Courts of the Three Princes, the, 182 
cowytt, 212-3 
Cradawc, 38, 40 
Graddock, Walter, 462 
crann, 88 
credu, 38 



654 



INDEX 



cretem, 38 

Crisiant, 312 

Croft, Sir Herbert, 384-5 

Cromwell, 449, 480 

Cromwell, Thomas, 367-8 

Cronium, So 

crown of Britain, 137. 

crown of London, 130 

Cruithnech, 76 

Cruithni, 76, 79-80, loi 

cruth, 79 

cu, 100 

Cu-Chocriche, 72 

Cii-Chorb, 72-3 

Cuchulainn, G8-9, 72 

cuig, 7 

Culann, 68, 72 

Culeon, 64 

Culii, 64 

Cumberland, 26 

Cum bra-land, 26 

Cumbria, 396 

Cunatami, Cunotami, 503 

Cuneda, 9, 10, 25, 35, 44, 106, no, 

119-20, 132-4, 194, 215, 255, 396 
Cunigni, filia, 18 
Cunobelinos, 91-4 
Curi, Conn', 100 ; ice Curoi 
Curoi, Corroi, 65, 100 
Curry, O', 52, 84 
Custantin, 88 
Cwm-hir, Abbey, 450 
cwrw, 587 

Cwta Cyfarwyd, the, 154, 611 
cyfarwys, cyfarws, 206 
Cyfeiliog, 326, 329, 409 
Cyfnerth, Cyvnerth ab Morgeneu, 

182, 226 
cyfraith gyffredin, 217, 304 
Cyfreithiau y tlrys, 197 
Cyfraith Saesneg a rhan Gymraeg, 

359 
cylch, 648 

Cylchgrawn Cymraeg, 534 
Cymanfaoed Ysgolion, 508 
Cymmrodorion, the, 494-5 
Cymorth Gwau, 598 
Cymraeg, 119 

Cymro, Cymry, 25-6, 117-9, 121 
Cymru, 117, 119, 121 
cymwd, cwmwd, 190, 219, 305, 352, 

356, 552, 612-6 
Cynan ab lago ab Idwal, 272 
Cynan ab Owain Gwyned, 309, 313 
cynghaws, 242 



Cynobellini, 41 

Cynon, 137 : sec Kynan Tindaethwy 

cynwarchad, 223 

Cyrus, St., 65 



D 

da, 195, 206, 208-10, 216, 225, 234 

Aa^pcoya, 88 

dadleuoed breninawl, 241 

Dsegsastan, 121 

Dafyd ab Gwilym, 505 

Dalan, 70 

Dal-Caiss, 96 

Dalon, 51 

Daln-Araide, 52 

Dalriad Scots, 81, 96 

Dal-Runtir, 51 

Danainne, 55 : see Danu 

Danes, the, 142-4, 14S-151, 156-7, 

1 60- 1 
Daniel, 595 
Daniel's, St., 465 
Dante, 591 

Danu, Danann, 15, 55-6 
Darlington, Thomas, 548 
datlewyr, 241 
dattrrann, 64 
David ab Griffith, 443 
David ab ILywelyn, no 
Davies, David, 552, 575 
Davies, Dr., 628 
Davies, Evan, 486 
Davies, I. Th., 553 
Davies, John, 556 
Davies, J. D., 29 
Davies, J. M., 45G, 576-8 
Davies of Landwr, iVIr., 456 
Davies, Richard, 490 
Davies of Bala, Thomas, 560 
Davies of Lansawel, Thomas, 573, 

576, 582, 6o5 
Davies, W. C, 498 
Davies, W. S., 577 
Davyd ab Gruffyd ab Owain Gwyned, 

326, 332, 334, 336, 339-41 
Davyd ab Owain Gwyned, 309, 311-?, 

317, 321, 323-4 
De Domnann, mac, 56 
Dea, Fir, 56 
Deargdamhsa, 66 
Decantse, 88 

Decanti, Decantorum, 88 
Decceddas, maqui, 47, 88 



INDEX. 



655 



Deceangli, 94 

Decheti, Decceti, 88 

Decies, the, 30 : see Deisi 

Deer, Book of, 64 

Defenanscire, 115 

Deganwy, 88, 141, 276, 2S2, 324, 

328-9, 331 ; see Decanti 
Deheubarth, 134-5, 144, 146 
Deheubarthwyr, 134 
Deira, 107 
Deisi, the, 30, 81, 84 
Demetae, 501 
demography, 585 
Denbigh, 443 
Deorham, 26, 121 
derdrestar, 68 
Derdriu, 68 
Der-Fraich, 72 
Der-Lugdach, 72 
Deva, 103 
Devon, 115 
Devon, the River, 115 
dexterales, Brittones, 140 
diacon, 588 
Diarmait, 15 

Dicaledonse, Dicalydones, 102 
dilysrwyd, 234 
dim, 638 

Dinas Emreis, 40 
Dinas Newyd, 149, 153 
Dingeraint, 297 
Dinefwr, Dinevwr, 135, 144, 146, 

188, 248 
Dinorwick, 416 
Die (Dion) Cassius, 14, 90, 93, 97-8, 

102 
Diocletian, 104 
Diodorus, 75-6, 78-9 
ALoyevTjs, 73 
dirwy, 226, 238-9 
Diserth, 323, 328, 331 
Disestablishment, 454-5 
distain, 198 
Diviciacos, 5, 8S-90 
do, 636 

Dobunni, 22, 90, iii 
dofraeth, 219 
Docmail, 120 
Dogmael's, St., 503 
Doli, 44 

Dolwydelen, 412, 414-16 
Domhnall, 24 

Domnu, Domnann, 55-6, 1 14-15 
Don, 15, 37, 54, 56, 598 : see Danu 
Donald, 24 



Donati's Comet, 595 

Donoghue, O', 593 

Donovan, O', 622, 637-S 

Donu, Donann : see Danu 

Dotoatt, 18 

Dovinia, mucoi, 52, 54, 57-8 

Doyle, J. H., 556 

Draco, Insular is, 106-7 

Dragomil, 74 

Dronga Domnand, 114 

Drost, 50, 63 

Drosten, 16, 63 

druid, 52, 112 

druidecht, 69 

Druidism, 83, 112, 255-6 

Druim Criaich, 15 

Duald Mac Firbis, 59 

Duan Albanach, the, 115 

Dubinn, Duibne, 15, 52, 54, 57-8 

Dubnovellaunos, 90 

Dubthach, 64 

Dumeli, 48-9 

Dumnonii, 55, 93, 97, 113-4 

Dun Cow, Book of the, 53, 57, 65, 

67-9, 84 
Dun na m-Barc, 59 
Dunaut, 120 
Dunawd, 106 
Dunloe, 18 
Dunmore Head, 57 
Dun Myat, Dunmyat, 98, 113 
Dux Bellorum, 105 
Dux Britanniarum, 118 
Dux Britannise, 9, 103, 106-8, no, 

118 
Dux Brittonum, 108-9 
dy, 636 
Dyaus, 89 
Dyfed, 30, 134 
Dyf-lyn, 38 
Dyfnwal ab Howel Da, 155-6 

158 
Dyfnwal Moel-mud, 24, 130-3, 184 

215, 218, 245 
Dyfnwal's Triads, 184 
DyfnwaTton, 156 
Dygen Freidin, 95 
Dylan, 37 



Eadgar, 154, 156-7 

Eadred, 156 

Eadric the Wild, 269, 274 



656 



INDEX. 



170, 174 
44. 351. 



Eadward the Elder, 149, 151, 153-4 

Eadvvig, 154 

Eadvvine, br. of Leofric, 166 

Eadwyne and Morkere, 270-1 

Ealdgyth, 167, 281 

Ealdred, Bishop, 170 

ebediw, 221, 225, 424 

Eber, 445 

Eblanii, 45 

Eburacum, 103 

Eccles-Greig, Eglis-Girg, 65 

Eceni, 92, 94-5, 112 

Ecgbryht, Eagbert, 108, 141-2 

Eden, Hon. R. H., 457 

edhng, the, 201-3 

Edmund of Lancaster, 335 

Edmund Mortimer, 340-1 

edrif, edryu, 244 

Edwal Ywrch, 136 : see Idwal Iwrch 

Edward the Black Prince, 343-4 

Edward of Carnarvon, 342, 361 

Edward the Confessor, 167 

Edward I., no, 333-5, 338- 

358, 361 
Edward III., 361 
Edward IV., 363 
Edward Spencer, 344 
Edwards, Dr. L., 485 
Edwards, Prof. Ellis, 496-7 
Edwards, Owen M., 498, 607 
Edwards, Richard, 571 
Edwards, Dr. T. C, 491 
Edwards, Wm., 601 
Edwin, 107, 109 
Edwin ab Einion, 163 
Edwyn ab Howel Da, 155, 158 
Efeyd, 37 : see Hymeid 
Efnissien, 38 
Eglwys Cymun, 18 
Egyptian, 618-30, 635, 637 
eido, 623-4 
Eildon, 593 
eiltio, 191 
Eirttion ; see Aitit, 191, 195, 205-7, 

214-6, 219-20 
Eineon ab Cedivor, 278-9 
Einion ab Owain ab Howel Da, 

158-9 
einym, 624 
eissyti'yn, 196 
Eistedfod, the, 254, 509, 514, 516-8, 

520, 522-4 
Elaeth, loi 
Elan, 45 
Eleanor de Montfort, 330, 34-5, 3337 



Elen, 30, 150 

eleni, 45 

Elenid, Elennyth, 45 

Elgar, 169 : see iElfgar 

Elised ab Anarawd, 152 

Elised ab Teudyr, 146 

Ellesmere, 313-4 

Ellice ap Wm. Lloyd, 518 

Ellis, Alex. J., 29, 526 

Ellis, Thomas E., 590, 604-6 

Elpa, 77 

Elton, 85 

Elucidarium, 505 

erfyn, 191 

Emain, 87 

Emma, 313 

Emreis, 40 

Enderbie, 124 

English Tongue, the, 371 

Enniaun Girt, 120 

Entifidich, 88 

Eochaid Feidlech, 15, 53 

Eogain Inbir, 53 

Eogan M6r, 58, 56 

Epaticcos, 91 

Epillos, 91 

Erbury, Wm., 462 

Ere, 51-2, 58 

Erce, 52, 58 

Ercias, Erccias, Maqqui, 52 

'EpSJvoi, 88 : see Ernai 

Erispoe, 50 

Eriu, gen. Erenn, 60 

Ernai, 88 

Ernauh, M., 38 

Erne, Lough, 88 

Erp, 64 

Erpenn, maqui, 64 

Erris, Irrus, 114 

erw, erwau, 218-9, 221 

Eryri, 137, 141 

Esgeir Oervel, 100 

Esyiit, Esyllht, 136-9, 144 

Etthil 
Etain, 70 
Etern, 120 
Ethered, Earl, 146 
etifed, 222 
ett, 16 

Etterni fill, 18 
Etthil, 138 ; see Esytlt 
Eumenius, loi 
Eure, Lord, 384-5 
Euroswyd, 38 
Eutropius, 99 



INDEX. 



657 



Evan son of Evan, 185 
Evans, J. G., 127-8, 611, 645 
Evans, Sir John, 41, gi 
Evans, Stephen, 500 
Evesham, battle of, 331 
Exeter, 264 
Extents, the, 403 
Ewyas, 154 



Faidherbe, M., 638 

fer, 72 

Fer Corb, 73 

Fer Tlachtga, 72-3 

Fernmail ab Meurig, 146 

fenstern, 583 

Festivals, the 3 Principal, 201 

F'ewyrth a modryb ac uwd, 562 

Ffaraon, 40 

Fick, 74 

Fidlin, 66 

Finnbharr, 74 

Fir Dea, 56 

Fir Domnann, 55-6, 114-5 

Fir Fortrenn, 102 : see Fortrenn 

Firbolg, 88 

Fir Ulaid, loi 

Fisher, John, 594 

Fishguard, 27 

Flanders, 28 

Fled Bricrenn, 53, 100 

Flemings, the, 27, 31, 265 

Florence, 28 

fo muir, 55 

fomhair, 55 

Fomori, 55 

foot-holder, the, 201 

Forciu, 113 : see Forth 

Forco, Forgo, 18 

Forcus, 16 : see Vorgos 

Forden, 554-5 

Forteviot, 12, 102, 113 

Forth, Forthin, 113 

Fortrenn, 12, 102 

Fothad, 98 

Fothrif, 102, 116 

Fothudan, Fothudain, 98, 115 

Four Masters, the, 60, 71 

Fowler, Richard, 450 

Fraech, 49 

Francton, Adam de, 341 

W.P. 



Freeman, the late Prof., 29, 142 

Freinc, 271 

Frenchmen in 1052, 168 

Froissart, 343, 594 

Frontu, 22 

fyrnigrwyd dywynau, 234 



gafael, gavael, 200, 218 

Galam, 43 

galanas, 226-34, 244-5 

Galatic, 3 

Galfrid, 128 : see Geoffrey 

Gallia Bracata, 567 

Garbaniaun, 132 

gavelkind, 355, 400 

Gant, 88 

gavl, 200 

Gee, Thomas, 566, 609 

Genaius, 17 

Genittac, 47 

Tevovvia MoTpa, 96 : see Genunians 

Gentich, 6, 48 

Gentiles de Ybernia, 287 

Genunians, the, 96, 102 

Geoffrey of Monmouth, 39, 44-5, 

124-5, 128, 131 
Geoffrey Plantagenet, 313 
Geona Cohors, 96 
Gerald de Windsor, 245, 282-3, 286, 

290, 294, 301 
Gerbod, 274 
Gerg, Greg, Giric, 65 
Gerginn, Gergind, Mag, 65 
Gerrcind, 65 
Gilbert de Clare, 332, 
Gilbert son of Richard, 297, 300, 347 
Gildas, 30, 105, 107, 177, 258 
Gilla-Muire, 71 
gille, 71 
Gilmore, 71 

Gilfaethwy, Gilvaethwy, 37, 71 
Giraldus Cambrensis, 145, 171-2, 

176, 199, 200, 207, 245-6, 252-4, 

256, 258-60, 313, 568 
Giudi, Urbs, 116 
Glamorgan, 21, 30 
glain, glein, gloin, 62 
Glasiconas, maqui, 48-g 
Glastonburj^ 592 
Gleguising, 146 

U U 



658 



INDEX. 



Glenn-Gerg, 65 

glesum, 62 

Gloucester, 163, i6g, 171 

Glynne, Wm., 518 

gobennyd, 251 

Godfrey son of Harold, 156-S 

Gododin, the, 120, 627, 632 

Godwine, 164-5 

Gofannon, 37, 54 

Gorman, 72 

Gornardus, 183 

Goronwy ab Cadwgan, 271 

Goronwy ab Moreidig, 182 

Gororau Clawef Offa, 527 

Gorsed, the, 517 

gorvodavvg, 225 

gosgord, 204 

Gosoctas, 52 

Gouge, Thomas, 480 

Govan's, St., 29 

Gower, 29, 281-2 : see Gwyr 

Granpius, Graupius, 96 

Greenan-Ely, 593 

Griffid Says, 343 

Griffith, Ellis, 366 

Griffith, R. W. 562 

Griffith, Sir Rees, 518-9 

Grig, 65 

Gruffyd ab Caradog, 272 

GruffydabCynanablago, 110,272-3, 

276, 283, 287, 289, 291, 299, 301, 

303-4, 306, 308, 517 
Gruffyd ab Cynfyn, 271 
Gruffyd ab Gwenwynwyn, 323, 326, 

329. 331. 334 
Gruffyd ab leuan, 517 
Gruffyd ab ILewelyn ab Seisyilt, 

123. 161-2, 164, 174, 245-6, 253-4, 

269-70, 281 
Gruffyd ab Maredud, 277, 339-40 
Gruffyd ab Owain Gwyned, 321-3, 

325 
Gruffyd ab Rhyllerchab lestyn, 164, 

167-8, 270 
Gruffyd ab Rhys ab Tewdwr, 300-1, 

304. 307 
Gruffyd, Sir Wm., 517 
Gruffyd ab yr Ynad Coch, 342 
Gruffyth, John, 518 
Gruffyth, Moris, 518 
Grufud, 109 
Guenedota, 119, 120 
Guernsey, 344 
Guorcein, 44 
Guordoli, 44 



Guotepauc, 133 

Guotodin,9,2i,9S, 115 ; s^cGododin, 

Votadini 
gwadol, 209, 211, 213 
Gwair ab Rhuvon, 1S2 
gwely, 195, 196-7, 200, 210, 220, 222, 

397-8 ; sec wele, tir gwelyawg 
Gwenhwyseg, 8 
Gwentiian, 337, 342 
Gwenttwg, 134 
Gwent, 78, 134-5, 159 
Gwenwynwyn, no 
Gwenwynwyn ab Owain Cyfeiliog, 

316 
Gwern, 38-9 
Gweryd, 113 
gwestey, 204 
gwestva, 204, 21S, 220-1 
Gwgan, Gwgawn ab Meurig, 143 
Gwgawn, 292 
Gwiberi, 182, 1S4 
Gwilym Hiraethog, 485 
gwlad, 108 

Gwlad Morgan, 278 ; sec Glamorgan 
gwledig, 9, 106, 108-9 
Gwri, 70 

Gwriad ab Merfyn, 144 
gwrthdrych, 202-3 
Gwydion, 15, 36-8, 56, 69, 70 
Gwydir, ^^ 

Gwydoniadur, the, 6og 
Gwyndodeg, 8 
Gwyned, 119, 134-5, '44 
Gwynva Powys, 188 
Gwyr, 134, 146, 159: sec Gower 
gwyr nod, 236 
gwyrda, igi, 204 
Gwythelin, 66 
gyrr kyureythyaul, 236 



H 

Hadrian, 96-8 
Hafren, 88 
halen, 88 

Hall, William, 612 
Hanes Cymru, 124 
Hanoteau, M., 624, 631, 637 
Harford, J. C., 577 
Hariberht, 74 
Harlech, 27 

Harold s. of Godwine, 27, 167-74, 
253. 269, 306 



INDEX. 



659 



Harold Harefoot, 164 

Harri'r Nawfed, 594 

Harris, Howell, 472-3 

Harry aparry, 518 

Harthacnut, 164 

Hastings, 149, 174 

Haverfield, Mr., 75, 104 

havod-dy, 248 

Hazlitt, 387 

Helston, 17 

Hely {read Bely), 41 

Hemeid, 145 : see Hymeid 

Hen Lyfr y Ty Gwyn, 646-8 

hen-dref, 248 

Hengestendun, 142 

Hengist, 82 

Henry I., 28, 274, 289-91, 293-4, 

297-301, 306 
Henry of Huntingdon, 125 
Henry H., 309-11 
Henry HI., no, 318-9, 322, 326, 329, 

Henry VH., 343, 363, 365, 384, 478 
Henry VHI., 358, 360-2, 365-6, 368, 

375. 384 
Herber Evans, 477 
Herbert, 74 
Herbert of Cherbury, Lord, 358-9, 

369, 514 
Hereford, 151, 167-8, 274 
Hereford, Bishop of, 513 
Heriu, 60 ; see Eriu 
Herschell, Lord, 499 
Hethfield, 109 
Heymys, Jo., 415 
Hibernia, 87 
Higuel, 109 ; see Howel 
Hill of Ward, 73 
Himeyt, 150 : see Hymeid 
himmel, 89 
Hiraethwy, 164. 
Hirbarth, 158 
hir-iau, 249 
Holder, 79, gg 
Horm, 144 

Hopton, Walter, 349-50 
horn, 112 

hotte trevet torture, 366 
Howel ab Cadeil : see Howel Da 
Howel Da, 128-30, 147, 149, 150, 

176-g, i8r, 183, 185-7, 246 
Howel Drwg : see Howel ab leuaf 
Howel ab Edwin, 163-4, 166-7 
Howel ab Goronwy, 285, 219-3 
Howel ab leuaf, 157-8 



Howel ab Owain Gwyned, 312 
Howel ab Rhodri Molwynog, 136-7' 

139 
Howel ab Rhysab Gruffyd, 145, 315 
Howel the Good, 25 , 30 ; see Howel Da 
Howell, T., 458 
Howth, 114 
Hubert de Burgh, 318 
Hiibner, 67 

Hugh of Chester, 276, 282 / 

Hugh the Fat, 287, 299 "\j_^,X^ 
Hugh de Lacy, 335 ^~^ 

Hugh s. of Roger, 284 
Hugh the Proud, 287 
Hughes. John, 574-5 
Hughes, Miss E. P., 500 
Hughes, Mr., 637 
Hughes, Rees, 518 
Hughes, S., 601 
Hughes, Samuel, 575 
huitaine, 220 % 

Humber, 112 

Humfrey Lwyd (Lloyd), 124-6 
Humphreys, Richard, 489 — 

hundred, the, 305 : see cymwd 
Hymeid, K. of Dyfed, 150-1 ; see 

Hemeid 
Hy-Neills, O'Neills, 50 



lacinipoi, 50 

lago ab Idwal, 160, 162-4 

lago ab Idwal ab Meurig, 161 

lago ab Idwal Voel, 155-7, 160, 

162-4 
iar, 641 

laripi, Maqqui, 57 
Ictis, 75, 78-9, 81 
Ictium, 79 

Idnerth ab Cadwgan, 286 
Idwal ( = Ithel) ab Gruffyd ab 

ILewelyn, 269 
Idwal Iwrch, 136, 138-140 
Idwal ab Meurig ab Idwal Voel, 

1 60- 1 
Idwal Voel ab Anarawd, 14, 17, 149, 

150, 183-4 
lestyn, lestin ab Gwrgan(t), 164, 

278-80 
leuaf ab Idwal Voel, 155-6 
leuan Gwyned, 485 

U U 2 



66o 



INDEX. 



imperator, io6 

in, 630 

in, ind, 630 

Inber Domnann, 114 

Inber Mor, 85 

Indech, 56 

ingnath, 87 

Ini, 125 

inigena, 18 

insignitus diademate, 39 

iod, 562 

lodeo, ludeu, 115, 116 

lorwerth ab Bledyn, 271, 289-91, 

297-9 
lorwerth ab Madog, 182, 226, 647 
lorwerth ab Owain Gwyned, 312 
iot, 562 

loth, Sea of, 115 
'lovepyia, 76 
lovfpvLKhs diKeavos, 87 
ipe, 16, 50 : see iouai 
"iTrirapxos, 74 
ipuai, 17, 50 
Irish Sea, the, 87 
Irrus Domnann, 114 
Isabella de Braose, 320 
Isca, 27, 82, 104 
Ithel ( = Idwal) ab Gruffyd ab 

ILewelyn, 269 
Ithel ab Rhiryd ab Bledyn, 294-5, 

298 
ludeu, 116; see lodeo 
lutgual, 138: sec Idwal 
Iverni, 45, 86-8 
Ivernia, 76 
Ivernis, 88 
Ivor, 125 
Ivor ab Alan, 136-7 



J 



James I., 384 

James, Ivor, 29, 500, 530 

Jannett, Princess, 320 

Jenkins, James, 557, 577 

Jenkins, Miss Kate, 556, 572, 602-3 

Jerome, 103 

Jesus Coll. MS. Twenty, 42 

Joan, 316-8, 320 

John, King, 315-8 

John, Owen, 518 

Jones, Griifith, 472, 481, 507 



Jones, Henry, 571 

Jones, John, 124 

Jones, M.P., John, 388-390 

Jones, J. C., 555, 561, 571 

Jones, J. E., 456 

Jones, F.R.S., J. Viriamu, 497 

Jones, R. Foulkes, 561 

Jones, Thomas, 477 

Jones, Wm., 576 

Jonson, Ben, 513 

Jovis, 89 

jura regalia, 356, 358, 372 

Jutes, 105 

Juvencus, 627 



K 



Kabyle, 631-4, 636 
Kamdwr, 271 
Kanovio, 100 
Karl the Great, 178 
Keating, 53, 59, 60 
Kelii Carnant, 286 
Kemble's Cod. Dipl, 153 
Kenilworth, 331 
Kennadlawg, the forest of, 309 
Kenneth mac Alpin, 113 
Kent, 78, III ; see Cantion 
Kenulf, 141 
Kenyon, G. T., 500 
Kenyon, Lord, 566 
Keredigion, 134, 143 ; see Cardigan 
Kessarogyon, 109 
Kidweli (Kidwelly), 134, 146, 282 
Kiepert, 85 
Kil Owain, 309 
Kilkenny, 84 
Kilsby Jones, J. R., 477 
kilt, 583 
Kilvawyr, 465 
Kimberley, Lord, 499 
King's Bench, 386, 390 
kinsmen, group of, 230 
Knutsford, Lord, 499 
Kulhwch, 106 
Kyle, 119 

Kymry, no; srr Cymro 
Kynan (Conan) ab Howel, 160-1 
Kynan Tindaethwy, 1369 
Kynwric ab Rhys, 56S 
Kystennin (Kystenin) ab lago, 
157-8 



INDEX. 



66i 



Ladhra, 60 

laechraidi Lir, 53 

Lamb, 344 

Lambert B. of Menevia, 183 

Lampeter, 493, 499 

Lancaster, IDuchy of, 372 

Land of the Living, the, 67 

Langton, Stephen, 318 

Latin Christianity, 458-9 

Laws, Edward, 29 

Lecky M.P., Dr., 460, 473, 482 

Lee, Rowland, 366-7 

Lefhngwell, Dr., 584-5 

leges barbarorum, 179 

Leicester, 93 

Leicester, Earl of, 410 

Leinster, Book of, 53, 55, 59, 65, 

72 
Leland, 359 

Leofgar, Bishop, 169, 170 
Leofric, 164-7, 170 
Leominster, 168 
Lewis, 318 : see Louis 
Lewis, the late Judge, 515 
Lewis, Wm., 518 
Liathain, Ua, 50 
Liber Landavensis, 128 
Limerick, the late Bishop of, 6C 
Lincoln, 264 
Lincoln, Earl of, 443 
Lindon, 93 
Lir, laechraidi, 53 
Lloyd : sec Humfrey ILwyd 
Lloyd, Jeuan, 518 
Lloyd, Morgan, 490 
Lloyd, Prof., 144 
Loegaire, 64 
Logiri, 64 : see Lugar 
Lollius Urbicus, 96 
Londinium, iii 
London, iii 
Londonderry, Dow. Duchess of, 

514 
Lords Marchers, 263, 300, 304, 307, 

310. 330. 357-8. 360, 372 
Lossio Veda, 46-7, 62 
Lothians, the, 21 
Louis of France, St., 318, 330 
Loumarc, 150 : see ILywarch 
Lovernii, Fill, 17 
Lower Britain, 103-4 
Ludlow, 319, 363 
JLugaid, 53 



Lugar, Lugir, 64 
Lugudunum, 86 
Luxmores, the, 468-g 
Lydney, 66 

IL 

ttadrad, 226, 234 
ILanaelhaiarn, 565, 581, 598 
ILanarth, 555, 571 
ILanbadarn, 166, 297 
ILanbedr, 604-5 
ILancarfan, 160 
ILandeilo Fawr, 340 
ILandogo, 526 
ILandona, 464 
ILandydoch, 277-8 
ILandyssilio, 464 
JLandeusant, 464, 556 
ILandewi Brefi, 295 
ILanfachreth, 600 
ILanfaethlu, 464, 600 
ILanfaglan, 17 
ILanfair Pwrt Gwyngyji, 464 
ILanfairynghornwy, 464 
ILan fart teg, 503 
ILanfwrog, 464 
ILanfyJtin, 585 
ILangadock, 602-3 
ILangefni, 600 
ILangwyrtog, 464 
ILanover, Lady, 514 
ILanrhidian, 284 
ILanrwst, 156 
ILansawel, 606 
ILanstephan, 318 
ILantwit Major, 30 
ILanuwchtlyn, 605-7 
ILanvaches, 462 
ILanvaes, action of, 141 
ILanybree, 465 
ILech Idris, 503 
ILechryd, 465 
rteidr, 48 

tteidr gwerth, 237 
tten, 251 

tlenrtyein, 251 \ 

ILeufer Thomas, Mr., 144 
ILevelys, 40 

ILew ILawgyffes, 37-8, 69 
ILewelyn ab Cadwgan, 271, 289 
ILewelyn ab Cedivor, 277-8 
ILewelyn ab Gruffyd ab ' Owain 
Gwyned, no, 325-6, 328-42, 349 
ILewelyn ab lorwerth, no, 165, 343 



662 



INDEX. 



JLewelyn ab lorwerth ab Owain 
Gwynetl, 312, 314-5, 317-21. 343 

ILewelyn, Lewis, 557 

ILewelyn ab Madog, 253 

ILewelyn ab Seisytlt, 160-2 

ILewelyn ab Trahaiarn, 298 

ILeyn, 134, 157, 336 

ILoegr, ILoegyr, 174, 188 

ILud, 40, 67 : see Nud 

ILundein, 39 : see London 

ILwyd, Humfrey, 612 

ILwyn Pina, 309 

ILych Crei, 277, 282 

ilymry, 562-3 

Lyr, 38, 42 : see Lir 

Lyfr Prawf, 226 

ILyfr Teilo, 128-9 

n.ywarch ab Himeyd, 150 

ILywarch li.ew Cad, 253 

]Lywarch ab Trahaiarn, 294, 299, 
301 

ILywelyn : sec ILewelyn 



M 



mab aiHt, meibion eitition : see 

Eilition, 191 
Mabinogion, the, 158, 504 
mabon, mapon, 3 
Macalister, Mr., 58 
mace, mac, 3, 72 
Mac Corb, 73 
Mac Datho, 48 
Mac Erce, 52, 58 
Mac Naue, 72 
Mac Tail, 18, 72 
maccu, maccui, 51 : see mocu 
maccu Lugir, 64 
Maccuchor, Insolae, 52 
Macha, 54 
Machynlleth, 585 
Macorbi, 52 

Masatse, 97-8, 102 : see Miati 
Maelgwn Gwyned, 10, 44, 106-7, 

no, iig-20, 316 
Maelgwn ab Owain Gwyned, 312, 

317 
Maelor Saesneg, 440 
maenol, maenolyrt, 204, 214, 218-9: 

see maenor 
maenor, maenawr, 218 



Maenor Byr, Manorbeer, 218, 245: 

see Maenor 
Maenor (Manor) Deifi, 218 
maer, 190, 192, 195 
maer-dref, 216, 219-20, 225, 401 
Maes Hyfeid, 160 
Magesaetas, the, 170 
Magh Leana, battle of, 59, 66 
Magic unos, 10, 106 : see Maelgwn 
Magnus, s. of Harold, 170 
Maiarai, 97 : see Mseatae 
Maig ab Howel Drwg, 158-9 
mail, 71 

Mail (Mael-) Patraic, 24, 71 
Mailgenn, 71 
Maine, Sir Heniy, 186 
Maive, 54 
mam, 20 
Manannan, 53 
Manapia, 85 ; see Menapia 
Manapii, 85 : see Menapii 
Manau, Manaw, 21, 120 
Manau Guotodin, 9, 119-20 
Manawydan, 37-40 
Mansell, Sir E., 185 
manor, 218, 305 
Maponos, 2, 3 

maqua -s, maqui, 3 : see mace 
maqui mucoi, 52 
Maqui Ttal, 18 
maqui Vorgos, 18 
marbh, 80 

March heath-burning, 238 
Marches of Wales, the, 304, 363-7, 

377 
marchog, 206 
mare, 80 
Maredud ab Bledyn, 271, 289-90, 

299-303 
Maredud ab Edwin, 163-4 
Maredud ab Gruffyd ab Llewelyn, 

269 
Maredud ab ILewelyn, 326 
Maredud ab Owain ab Edwin, 269 
Maredud ab Owain ab Gruftyd ab 

Rhys, 328 
Maredud ab Owain ab Howel Da, 

150, 158-60, 162 
Maredud ab Rhys Gryg, 328-9, 

332 
Maredud, K. of Dyfed, 137 
Margam MSS., 349 
Marshal, Wm., 318 
marw, 80 
Mary, the Virgin, 42 



INDEX. 



663 



Masqueray, M., 631 

Math, 37, 56, 69, 72 

Mathew, Myles, 366 

Matholwch, 38-9 

Mathonwy, 37, 56 

Mathrafal, 135 

Matilda, 28 

Matugenos, 63 

Maxen's Dream, 43 

May, Isle of, 98 

Mearns, the, 65 

Meath, 11 

Mechain, 269 

mechdeyrn dues, 188 

mechniaeth, 211, 225 

Medocius, 46 

mei-iau, 249 

Meilir, 123 

Meirion, 9, 10, 106, 120, 131 

Meirionyd, 106, 134, 326 

Melrose, 593 

Menapia, 99 : see Manapia 

Menapii, 85-6; see Manapii 

Mendip, 93 

Menevia, 273 

meqqddrroann, 64 

Mercia, 149, 150-1 

Merdyn, 121 

Meredyd : see Maredutf 

Merfyn Frych, 136-9, 143 

Merfyn ab Rhodri, 144-5, 147-8 

Meriaun, 120: see Meirion 

merin, 115-6 

Mermin, 138 : see Merfyn 

Mesce Ulad, 56-7 

Meurig ab Arthvael, 162 

Meurig ab Dyfnwal, or ab Dyfn- 

watton, 143, 145 
Meurig ab Idwal Voel, 160 
Meyer, Prof., 56, 59, 81 
Miati, Miathi, 97-8 : see Mseatae 
Mictim, Insulam, 78 : see Ictis 
Mfl, 43. 45 

Milesians, the Irish, 45, 49 
Miliuc, 52 
Milodrag, 74 
Minocannus, 41 
Minocynobellinus, 41 
Mise of Lewes, the, 330 
mocu, 51-2 ; moco, 51-2 : see maccu, 

mucoi 
Mocudruidi, 51 
Modonnus, 85 
Moel-mud, 24 : see Dyfnwal 
Moel-Muaid, 24 



Mog Nuadat, Mogh Nuadhad, 58. 

66-7, 71. 73 
Mog Ruith, 73 
Mogh Neid, 66-7, 73 
molad, 87 
Mold, 323-4 
MoUoy, O', 24 
Momera, 59-60 
Mon : see Mona 
Mona, 112, 134 
Monmouthshire, 278 
Monothelite Controversy, the, 474 
Montgomery, 24, 275 
Moray Firth, the, 97 
Morcunt, Morcunn, 65 
Mordav, B. of Bangor, 183 
Morgainn : see Morcunt 
Morgan Hen, 150, 152-4 
Morgan ILwyd, 462, 531 
Morgannwg (Morganwg), 30, 134-5, 

278 
Morgant, 65 : see Morgan 
Morgunn : see Morcunt 
Morimarusam, 75, 80-1 
Mormons, the, 595-6 
Morlais Jones, J., 477 
Morris, Caleb, 477 
Morris Jones, Prof. J., 517 
Morris, Sir L., 492, 495 
Mortagne-sur-Mer, 344 
Mortimer, Roger, 323, 329-30, 335 
Mostyn, 525 
Mostyn, Peres, 518 
Mostyn, Wm., 518-9 
motus, 648 
Moytura, 55 
mu, mo, 58-9 
Mu Dovinia, 58-9 
Muad, Muaid, 24-5 
muchyn, 526 

mucoi, 50-2 : see maccu, mocu 
Mug, 66 : see mog, mogh 
Mug Corb, 73 
Mug-eime, 25 

Mug-Neit, 73 : see Mogh N. 
Mug-Nuadat, 73 : see Mog N. 
Mullenhoff, Prof., 77, 80, 84 
Miiller, C, 84, 87 
muir, 80 

Muir nicht, 78, 116 
Muir nioth, 115-6 
Mundella, Mr., 494 
Munremur, 65 
Mynogan, 38, 41-2 
Mynyd Carn, ^72-3 



664 



INDEX 



N 
Nad-Fraich, 49, 72 : sec Nioth-F. 
Nahhtvvddafles, 64 
Naindidh, 18 
Na/xav (Tarts, 22 
naasus, 20 
Natdad, 64 
nativi, 401, 403, 407, 411, 419-20, 

425 
Navan Fort, 87 
Navvallo, 47 

nawd, 194, 216-7, 228, 238, 250 
nawfed ach, 231 
naw-nos, 220 
Neath Valley, the, 21 
nei, nai, 48 
Nellis, Nepotes, 50 
Nelso, 465 
Nennius, 41-3, 98 
Neo-Celtic, 22-3 
nepos, nepus, 47-8, 50, 62 
Nero, 95 
Nessa, 15, 54 

Nest, sister of Congen, 143 
Nest, daughter of Gruffyd ab 
ILewelyn, 281 
».Nest, wife of Gerald, 294 
Net, 73 

Neta-Segamonas, 72 
Nettasagru, 53 
Newton Stone, the, 16-17, 5° 
nez, 20 
ni, niz, 48 
nia, niath, 72 
Nia Corb, 73 
Nia Segamain, 72 
Nicholas, Dr., 490 
Nicholas de Myles, 325 
nie, nia, nieth, 48, 50-1 
Nieth-Neill, 50-1 ; see Nepotes Nellis 
nightmare, 55 
Nigra, 24 
NiK6as, 74 

NlKiVS, 74 

NLK6/j,ax'>s, 74 

NT/fus, 74 

nioth, niath, 48, 50 

Nioth-Fruich, 49, 72 : see Nad-F. 

Niott-Vrecc, 72 

niotta, 48 : see nioth, 49 

Nissien, 38 

Nodens, 67 

Nonconformists, 454-8, 462-3 

Norden, John, 430 

Norsemen, the Irish, 166 



Northmen, 142-3 

nos, 48 

Notitia Dignitatum, 103 

nox, 48 

noz, 48 

Nuada, Nuadha, 66 

Ni'iall, 47 

Nudens, 67 

Nud, 67 : see Nodens, ILud 

Nwython, 91 



O 

". 47. 50 

oc, ag, 630 

Oenfer, 67 

Offa, K. of Mercia, 140 

Offa's Dyke, 527 

offeyrat teulu, 647 

officers, 357 

Ogams, 3, 502 

Ogygia, 59 

Omagh, 18 

Orderic, 28 

Ordinance of Rhudlan, 350 

Ordovices, g, 10, 40, 45, 95, 501 

Ordwyf, 10 

Oriel. loi 

Orosius, 41, 43 

Orpen, Mr., 87 

osb, the, 201-2 

Osbern sheriff of Hereford, 274 

Osborne Morgan, Sir G., 489-90 

Osir, 17 

Osismi, 84 

Osmail, 120 

Osraighe, 84 

Ossory, 84 

Ostiaei, 84 

'n<rTia(o(, 84 

Ostiones, 84 

'ncTricovfs, 84 

Ostorius Scapula, 94 

Oswald, 109 

Otadini, 'araStpoL, 21,98: see Vota- 

dini, Gododin 
Otto, Pope's Legate, 322 
Ottobon, the Legate, 332 
OviWoveos, 22 
OiicrSiai, 84 

OixrXovvTioi, 17: scf Ulad 
•'-Owain ab Cadwgan, 259, 293-7, 299- 

, 301 

I Owain ab Davyd, 31C-7 



INDEX, 



665 



Owain ab Gruffyd ab Cynan ; see 

Owain Gwyned 
Owain abGruffydab Gwenwynvvyn, 

334 
Owain (Owen) ab Howel Da, 42, 44, 

138, 155 
Owain ab Morgan Hen, 154 
Owain Cyfeiliog, 311, 314 
Owain Goch ab Gruffyd ab Owain 

Gwyne*, 325-6, 336, 343 
Owain Glyndwr, 343, 345, 362, 404, 

418, 478 
Owain Gwyned, 308-312 
Owain Lawgoch, 343-4, 593-4 
Owen, Aneurin, 25, 177, 180-4, 188, 

517, 569, 646, 648 
Owen, Daniel, 608 
Owen, Edward, 412, 423 
Owen, George, 31, 425, 446, 558 
Owen's Dialogue, George, 384 
Owen, Henry, 28-9, 31 
Owen, Sir Hugh, 462, 487, 489-90, 

512, 576 
Owen, Dr. Isambard, 497-8 
Owen, James, 462, 480 
Owen, John Lewis, 518 
Owen, M., 458 
Owen, Maynard, 498 
Oxford, 164, 330, 478 
Oxford, Provisions of, 330 
Oystermouth, 284 



Padarn Pesrutt, 119: see Patern 

pais, 251 

Palmer, A. N., 417 

pan, 20 

Pant, 86 

Pandulf, 318 

Pantulf, Wm., 290 

Parisi, 6, 112 

parliament, members of, 374 

Parry, Dr., 609 

Patern Pesrut, 106, 119 

Paternus, 119 ; see Padarn 

Patrick, 83 

Pausanias, 96 

Peanfahel, 12 

Peckham, Archbishop, 339-40 

Pedigree I., 138-9 

Pedigree X., 132-3 

Pembroke, 282 

Pembrokeshire, 348 



pen, 7 

Penardim, 38-9 

Pen-ardu, 38 

Pencader, 166 

pencenedl, penkenedl, 192, 195, 205, 

239 
Pendaran, 70 

Pengwern, 140: srf Amwythig 
Penkridge, 7 
Penmon, 464 
pennaeth, 240 
Pennal, 478 

Penn Annwn, 70 : see Pwylt 
Pennant, 599 
Pennocrucion, 7 
Ylevvo-ouivSos, 73 
Penrice, 284 

penteulu, 193-4, ^98. 250, 646 
penteyrned, 106 
Penwyn, 73 
Perfedwlad, 317-8, 325-6, 328, 331-2, 

336-7, 346 
Perowne, Dr., 490 
Perros Guirec, 563 
Perth, 113 
Philemon, 80 
Philip and Mary, 361 
Philip VI. of France, 343 
Phillimore, Egerton, 42, 127-8 
Phillips, Sir Thos., 482, 548 
Pictania, Pictinia, 79 
Pictavi, 79 
Pictavia, 79 
Pictones, Pictores, 79 
Pictus, Picti, 79, 80 
picus mali, 553 
Pierret, M., 623,629 
pilnos, 598 
Plinlimmon, 597 
Pliny, 75, 77, 80 
poi, 50 

Poictiers, battle of, 343 
Poitou, 79 
Pontius, 2 
Pope Q.C., Mr., 604 
Porius, 503 : see Voteporigis 
Porrex, 131 
Porth Iscoed, 173, 270 
potes, 553-4 
Powel, David, 125 
Powel, Dr. David, 611 
Powell, Vavasour, 462 
Powis, the Earl of, 496, 500 
Powys, 134-5, 144 
Ppwyseg, 8 



666 



INDEX. 



prsepositus, 190 : see maer 
Prasutagus, 95 
pratum, 20 
pre, 20 
pren, 88 

Prestatyn, 311, 525 
Pretanic, 75-6, 80 
TlpfTaviK-at, -7], 76 
Price (Prise) Sir John, 126, 611-2 
Price, Ellice, 518-9 
Price, Owen, 457 
Price of Rhiwlas, Mr., 561, 603-4 
Price, Thos., 124 
Pri chard, J. M., 600 
Prichard, Vicar, 505 
primogeniture, 400 
Prince of Wales, the, no, 500 
priodolion leoed, 199 
Pri ten, 76 : see Prydain 
progenies, 397 
Proof-book, the, 647 
ProphwydoHaeth Myrdin, 594 
pryd, 79 

Prydain, Prydyn, 76, 79, 80 
Prydein Wledic, 108 
Pryderi, pryderi, 70 
Pryderi's Kingdom, 158 
Ptolemy, 45, 78, 85, 87-8, 97, 99 
Puleston, Robert, 518 
Puleston, Sir T. H., 582 
pump, pimp, 2 
Pwtt Dyvach, 166 
Pwtt Gwdyc, 272 
Pwttheli, 58,5 
pwy, 2, 638 
Pwylt, 53, 69-70, 158 
Pyr, 30, 218, 245 : see Porius 
Pytheas, 75-6, 78, 81 
pythewnos, 220 
Pyvog, 312 



Q 



quare impedit, 357 
quei, quoi, 2 
Queen's Officers, ic 
quinque, 2 
Quintus, 2 
quinzaine, 220 
quo warranto, 360 
Qurtanic, 76 



R 



Radnorshire, 450 

Raguell V. Auleod, 272 

raja, 73 

Ralph the Earl, 168-9, 253 

Randall, J. M., 595 

Randall, Dr. W.,'562 

Ranulph, Earl of Chester, 316 

Ratae, 93 

Rathbone M.P., Wm., 497, 500 

Ravenstein, Mr., 548-9 

Reade, Lady, 600 

Record Office, the, 25 

Red Dragon, the, 106 

Rees, Henry, 489 

Rees, Thomas, 477 

I^eformation, the, 459, 479 

Regin, 140 : see Rein 

Reginald de Grey, 349-50 

Regni, 92, in 

Reichei, Principal, 497 

Rein, K. of Dyfed, 137, 140 

Rein Yscot, 162 

Reinach, M., 32, 36, 61 

Remi, 88-9 

Renan, M., 563 

Rendel, Lord, 500 

Rene Basset, M., 633, 637 

Renouf, Mr., 619, 622, 625, 627-9, 637 

Rex Anglorum, 141 

Rex Brettonum, 107, 109 

rhaith, 205, 236, 245 

rhandir, rhandiroed, 21S 

rheithwyr, 259 

Rhiannon, 69, 70, 94 

rhingytl, 195 

Rhiryd ab Bledyn, 276-7 

Rhiwatton ab Cynfyn, 173, 269, 306 

Rhodri ab Howel Da, 155, 158 

Rhodri ab Owain Gwyned, 313-4 

Rhodri Mawr, 128, 136-9, 143-4, 

146-8, 246, 272, 341 
Rhodri Molwynog, 109, 136-9 
Rhos, 339 
Rhudlan, 171, 275 
Rhudlan, Statute of, 184, 306, 347, 

350-1. 375, 400 
Rhun ab Maelgwn, 107 
Rhun ab Nwython, 91 
Rhuvoniog, 134, 137, 141 
Rhyd y Gors, 282-3, 285, 292 
Rhyd y Groes, 166 
Rhyderch ab Caradog, 271 
Rhyderch ab lestyn, 162-3 



INDEX. 



667 



Rhys ab Gruffyd, 185,282,304,309-1 1 , 

314. 516 
Rhys Gryg, 316, 319 
Rhys, J. D., 630 

Rhys, Lord, 516 : see Rhys ab Gruffyd 
Rhys ab Maelgwn, 339 
Rhys ab Maredutf, 341 
Rhys ab Owain, 270-2 
Rhys, Prof., 492, 495-6 
Rhys ab Rhyderch, 167-8 
Rhys ab Tewdwr, 109, 272-3, 277-8, 

281, 292 
Ribble, the, 69 
Richard, B. of Bangor, 322 
Richard, son of Baldwin, 292 
Richard, Earl of Chester, 302 
Richard, Henry, 492, 591-2 
Richard ab Howel, 517 
Richard Marshal, 320 
Richard, sheriff of Shrewsbury, 294, 

298 
rig-domna, 203 
Rights, the Book of, 84 
rithmours, 518-9 
ro, 636 

Robert ab Seisytit, 164 
Robert de Belleme, 289, 290 
Robert Earl of Gloucester, 125 
Robert Fitz-Hamon, 278-80, 348 
Robert of Rhudlan, 274-6, 282 
Roberts, Dr. R. D., 500 
Roberts, Gomer, 553 
Roberts, Principal, 497 
Robinson, Prebendary, 492 
Rochemonteix, M. de, 626 
Rodrigo, the Cid, 592 
Roger of Shrewsbury, 282 
Rogers, David, 554 
Roget de Belloguet, 32 
roi, 100 
Roig, 54 
Roose, 28 

Rosebery, Lord, 500 
Rossi, 624, 627-8, 633, 637 
Rotri, 109, 138: see Rhodri 
Rowlands, Daniel, 472-3, 506 
Rowlands, Dr., 565, 576, 581 
Rowlands, Richard, 565, 571, 576 
Rubeas, 80 
Rumaun, 120 
Runtir, 51 
rus, ruris, 100 
Ruthin Court Rolls, 117 
ry, 636 
Rymney, 270 



Sabrann, 88 

Sabrina, 88, 94 

Sachs, Hans, 583 

Saeson, hyt ar y, 289 

saeth, 253 

Sagramni, Sagrani, 503 

St. Asaph, Bishop of, 497 

St. David's, Bishop of, 497 

salann, 88 

Salesbury, Wm., 462, 513, 517 

Salisbury, 267-8 

Salisbury, E. G., 490 

Salusburj', John, 518 

Salusbury, Sir Roger, 517 

saraad, 197, 217, 227, 229, 231-4, 240, 

244 
Saturday Review, the, 29 
Saunders, Dr. E., 464-5, 471 
Saxon Chronicle, the, 108 
Saxons, 102, 105, 107 
Sayes sen. of Carmarthen, de, 329 
Schrader, O., 617 
Scota, 59, 114 

Scotorum, Chronicum, 59-60 
Scottewatre, 116 
Scotti, 87, 101-2 
sechem, 38 
'Xeyofx.apos, 22 
Segomo, 72 
Segontiaci, 92 
Segontium, 27 
seiet, seiat, 588-9 
Sein Henyd, 248 
Selgovse, 97 

Senena, w. of Gruffyd, 322 
Senlac, 174 
Sergi, Sr., 618 
Sescenn Uarbe6il, 100 
Sessions, the Quarter, 379 
Sessions, King's Great, 377-9, 383-4 

386, 388, 391-2 
sessom, 38 
Setanta, 69 
Setantii, 69 
sethar, mac, 49 
Severn, 88 : see Hafren 
Severus, 97, 104 
Seward, 473 
Shetland, 16 
Shires, the "Welsh, 347, 373, 375, 

376-7 
Shrewsbury, 140, 274, 495 
Sidney, Sir H., 126 
Silchester, 82 



668 



INDEX. 



Silures, 40, 94-5, 501 

Simon Magus, y^ 

Simon de Montfort, ^^^ 

Skelton, 587 

Skene, 51, 65 

Slieve Beagh, 60 

Slieve Bloom, 84 

Sloe, the, I03 

Snowdon, barons of, 336, 340-1 

Sogin, 51 

Solinus, 80 

Solva, 27 

Southall, Mr., 544, 547 

Spain, 58 

Stanley of Alderley, Lord, 601-2 

Star Chamber, the, 364, 386 

Statutum Walliffi, 361 

Stephen, 28, 308-9 

Stephens, Thomas, 116, 312, 513 

Stephens, W. E., 577 

Stillingfleet, Dr., 4S0 

Stirling, 113 

stirpes, per, 397 

Stokes, Dr. Whitley, 49, 51, 55, 65, 

72, 77-8, 100 
Strabo, 75-6, 84 
Strata Florida, 125 
streicio, 583 
sucan, 553, 563 
Suessiones, 5, 89 
Suetonius, 41, 61, 93 
Suetonius Paulinus, 95 
Suir, the, 84 

Sunday School, the, 507-9, 527 
surnames, 257 
Swansea, 248 
Sweet, Dr. Henry, 29 
sydyn, 196 



Tacitus, 61-2, 92, 94-5, III 

taeog, taeogion, 191, 195,204,214-5, 

400 
taeog-tref, 216, 225 
tair Talaeth, 145 
Talaith of Aberfrowe, 519 
Talargant, Talargan, 65 
Taliessin, Book of, 43, 76, 87, 119 
Talorcen, Talorc, 65 : see Talargant 
Tamashek', 631, G33, 635, 638 
tan, 226, 237 
tanaiste, 203 



Tara, 14, 15 

Tarbeisonios, 22 

Tasciovant, 90 

Tasciovanus, 90 

Taylor, Canon I., 618 

Tees, the, 112 

Tegai, Huw, 620 

Tegeingl, 94, 311 

Tehvant, 90 

Teilo, St., 129 

teisban teulu, 193 

Tenuantius, 91 ; see Tehvant 

Teuhant, 91 ; see Teh\'ant 

teyr kolofyn kyvreyth, 226 

teyrnas y Brytanyeit, 109 

Teyrnon, 70 

Theloall, Symound, 518 

Theodosius, 102 

Thomas a Becket, 312 

Thomas, B. of St. David's, 349-50 

Thomas, David, 477 

Thomas, Dr. David, 500 

Thomas M.P., Alfred, 500, 537 

Thomas, James, 456 

Thomas, Jenkin, 574 

Thomas, John, 573 

Thomas, Dr. John, 477 

Thomas, ILeufer, 580 

Thomas, Rees, 51S 

Thomasson's tracts, 530 

Tigernach, 79 

Tillotson, Dr., 480 

Tincommios, gi-2 

tir cyfrif, 214, 220, 224-5, 4°° • ^^^ 

tref gevery 
tir gwelyawg, 194-7, 200, 204-5, 207, 

214-6, 220-3,225, 229, 240, 259: 

see gwely, wele 
Tlachtga, 72-3 
Tochmarc Momera, 60 
Togodumnos, 93 
Toicac, 18 
Toranias, avi, 47 
Tostig, 27, 171 
Touareg, G31 
Tout, Prof., 125, 144, 348 
Tower of Babel, 124 
Traethodytf, y, 534 
Trahaiarn, 271-2, 293 
trais, 234 

Trartwng Lewelyn, 298 
Tre' Faldwin, 275, 284 
Tredegar, Lord, 500 
tref, trefyd, 218, 225 
tref gyfrif, tref gevery, 400, 402 



INDEX. 



66g 



Trefor ILanaelhaiarn, 581-2 

Trefor Mon, 600 

Trenanus, 51 

tri, 638 

tri thywysog taleithiog, 145 

Triads, Dyfnwal's, 184 

Tribes, the Lost Ten, 605 

Trinovantes, 89, 90, 92-3, 111-2 

Trisantona, 94 

Troughanacmy, 114 

Troy, 124 

Trucculensis, Portus, 96 

Trysorfa Gwybodaeth, 533 

Ttal, Maqui, 18 

Tuath, Tuatha, De Danann, 56-7 

Tudur Aled, 517 

Tweed, the, 28 

Ty Gwyn, 155, 179, 646: see Whit- 
land 

ty*yn, tydynau, 195-6, 205, 218, 
221-2, 225, 398-9 

Typipaun, 120 

tywysog, tywyssawc, no, 134, 190 

tywyssawc Kymry, no 

tywyssogyon Kymry, no 



U 
ua, 47 : see 6 
Uarbel, 100 
uchelwr, uchelwyr, 191, 204-5, 207- 

440, 445 : see breyr 
Uchtrud ab Edwin, 285, 294 
Uecla, 46 ; see Veda, 47 
ui, hui, 50 
Ulaid, Ulad, 87 
University of Wales, the, 496 
Uoret, 16-17, 88 
Upper Britain, 103-4 
upsitting, 583 
Urban, 128 
Uriconium, 94 
Urse of Abetot, 274 
Usdise, 84-7 
Usnech, Sons of, 68 
uwd, 562-3 



V 



Vale of Glamorgan, 27, 30 : see 

Bro Morgannwg 
Valentia, 104, 120 
Van Eys, M., 639 



Vaur, Vorrenn, 17, 64 

Vectis, 78 

Veda, 46-7, 62-3 

Vellabori, 52 

Velvor, 52 

Vendubari, 74 

Veneti, 83, 85 

Venta, 82 

Ventry, Lord, 52, 57 

Vep. Cor. F., 63 

Vepogeni, Nepos, 46, 53, 62-3 

Vepotalus, 63 

Vepus, 63 

Verica, 91 

Verlamion, 90 

Verney, Lady, 500 

Verturiones, 102 

Vespasian, 92-3 

Vicarius Britanniarum, 103 

Victor, 18 

Vikings, the, 287 

Vipoig, 47, 63 

Viriamu Jones F.R.S., J., 495 

Viricorbi, 52 

Vitalin, maqui, 65-6 

Voluntii, 87: see Ulaid 

Voret, 50 : see Uoret 

Vorgos, 18 

Vorrenn, 64: see Vaur 

Vortigern, 82, 121 

Vortiporius, Vortipori, 30, 503 

Votadini, 21, 98, 1 12-3 : see Gododin 

Votecorigas, 98, 503 

Voteporigis, 98, 503 

Vriconion, 93 : see Uriconium 



W 

walda, 108 : see Bretwalda 

Wall, the Roman, 101-2 

Wallography, 515 

Walpole, Spencer, 469 

Warrington, 124 

Waterford, 84 

wealdan, 108 

wedi, 625, 641 

Wedmore, the peace of, 149 

wele, 377-8 : see gwely 

Welsh, 389-392 

Wer burgh. Saint, 151 

Wesley, 472, 589 

Westwood, the late Prof., 568 

Wexford, 99 



670 



INDEX. 



Whitfield, 472, 589 

Whitland, 155, 179, 184-5: sec Ty 

Gwyn 
Wight, Isle of, 93, 103, III 
William s. of Baldwin, 283 
William of Brabant, 297 
William de Braose, 319, 320 
William I., 28, 267, 273, 275, 297 
William II., 28, 284-7, 289 
William Fitz-Osbern, 274 
William of London, 284 
William ab John, John, 518 
William of Malmesbury, 28, 125 
William ap Thomas, Sir, 446 
William s. of William Marshal, 

318-9 
Williams, loi 
Williams, Benj., 593-4 
Williams, C, 458 
Williams, Hugh, 552 
Williams, Jane, 124 
Williams, Lewis, 500 
Williams, Moses, 179, iSo 
Williams of Pant y Celyn, 506 
Williams, T. Marchant, 500 
Williams, Wm., 572 
Williams M.P., Wm., 484, 490 
Williams, W. IL., 598-9 
Windisch, Prof., 6g, 622 
Winsford Hill, 47 
Witenagemot, Witan, the, 151, 153, 

156, 164 
Wleth, 87 : see Ulaid 
Worcester, 163 
Wotton, 179, 180 
Wradech Uecla, 47 
Wright, Prof., 29 



Wroth, Wm., 462 
Wro.xeter, 93 
Wyn, Robert, 415 
Wynne, Sir John, i^, 443 
Wynne, Maurice, 518 
Wynne, Owen S., 541 
Wynne of Peniarth, Mr., 457 
I Wynne-Jones, Archdeacon, 602 
wythnos, 220 



yn, 625, 630 
ynad itys, 239 
Ynys B^r, 218 
Youghal, 84 
ys, 626 

Yspadaden, 197 
Yspwys, the Wood of, 283 
yssid yssit, 626 
ystrad, 134 
Ystrat Glut, 149 
Ystrad Towi, 134, 143, 271, 284 
Ystrad Yw (Ystradyew), 154 
Yvain de Galles, 343 ; see Owain 
Lawgoch 



Zenaga, 638 

Zivs, 89 

Zimmer, Prof., 36, 41, 640 



INDEX OF PRINCIPAL TOPICS AND 
TERMS. 



Aberystwyth, college at, 491-2, 

494 
Aberffraw, tenants of, 402, 405-6 
Aborigines, 11-13, 14, 36, 61, 120 
Administration, Roman, 103-5 
Alfred, submission 

of Hemeid to, 145 

of Anarawd to, 148 
jEthelstan, submission of Howel 

Da to, 153 
Agitation against the Court of the 

President and Council of the 

Marches, 384-5 
Agwedi, 211 
Aiitt, 191, n. I 
Atitud, 191-2, 215-6 
Ammod dedfol, 225 
Ammodwyr, ib. 
Amobr, 209 
Ancient Laws and Institutes : see 

Laws 
Annales Cambrise, 126, n. i 
Application of English Law under 

Queen Elizabeth in North 

Wales, 407-23 
Ardelwr, 193 
Arglwyd, 190 
Argyvreu, 209 
Assembly at Ty Gwyn, 179, 

181 
Authorities for early history of 
"Wales, 

Annales Cambriae, 126, n. i 

Brut y Tywysogion, ib. 

Gwentian Brut, ib. 

Liber Landavensis, 128, n. 3 

see Laws, Inscriptions, 

Pedigrees 



B 



Baily's Visitation of Bangor, 464 

Bailiff, 240 

Bara itech, 250, n. i 

Bara plane, ii. 

Bard, 254-5 

Barrows, i 

Bath, 251 

Battles, 

Abergwili, 162 

Aberitech, 286 

Abertteiniog, 288 

Abertowy, 167 

Bronn yr Erw, 271 

Brun, 149 

Buailt (near), 341 

Camulodunon, 95 

Carno, 156 

Cetytt, 136, 143 

Chester, 121, ib., n. i 

Deganwy, 276 

Deorham, 121 

Dial Rhodri, 148 

Dinas Newyd, 149 

Evesham, 331 

Hawarden Castle, 339 

Hereford, 169, 170 

Kennadlawg, 309 

Leominster, 168 

Lewes, 330 

ILych Crei, 277 

Mag Leamna, 66 

Mons Granpius, 96 

Prestatyn, 311 

Pwii Gwdyc, 272 

Rhudlan, 171, 311 

Rhyd y Groes, 166 

Yspwys Wood, 283 
Bed, 251 



672 



INDEX. 



Bible, translation of, 461, 461, n. i, 

505 
Blegywryd's verses, 183, n. 
Bonedig, 191, 204-5 
Brad (treason), 239 

y ILyfrau Gleision, 4S5 
Braint, 191 
Brenin : sec King 
Breyr ; see Uchelvvr 
Briduw, 225 
Britain, Crown of, 121 

names of, 77-80 

Albion, 77 

Belerium, 78 

Ictis, ib. 
Brythonic language, i 
Brythons, 1-8, lo, 35, 86, 120 
Bundling, 582-4 



Caeth, 191 

Camlwrw, 227, 238 

Canltaw, 242 

Canones Wallici, 177, n. 2, 648 

Cantii, 6 

Cantref, Int. xvii., 29-34, 190, 240 

Capitular regulations, 217 

Caradog of Lancarvan, 124-6 

Cardiff, building of, 247, 273 

college at, 493-4 
Celts, I, 4, 5 

Celtic languages, 1-4, 501-3 
Celtic church, 458-9, 459, n. i 
Cenedl, description of, 192-4 
groups within, 196-7 
of royal status, 191,203, n. 3 
Chancellors of the University, 500 
Character of the Welsh, 

in early times, 252 

in modern times, 590-5 
Charter of Henry VII., 413, 417 

University, 49S 
Chief Justice, 239 
Christianity, 61, 458-9 
Church in Wales, 

absenteeism, 468 

Anglican, 463-68 

Baily's visitation, 464 

capitular regulations, 217 

condition of, in 17th and iSth 
centuries, 463-S 

clergy, 216 

courts of the, 217 

land of the, 216-7 



Church in Wales, 

Luxmoore's case, 468-9 

pluralities, 468-9 

Saunders' View, 464-5 
Circuit, of bards. 

North Wales, 392, ib. n. i 

South Wales, 393, ib. nn. i, 2, 3 
Clerk, 217 

of the court of the cymwd, 240 
Clothes : see Dress 
Cnut's accession, 161 

its effects, 163 
Cof ILys, 242 
Colleges, 

Aberystwyth, 491, 493-4 

Bangor, 493-4 

Cardiff, ib. 

Normal, 486 

St. David's, 489 

Theological, 483, n. i 
Columns of Law, the three, 226 
Commendation, 

of son to lord, 205 

of kings and princes, 146, 148, 
151-2, 157 
Sec too, Submission of Welsh 
Princes 
Commission, Common Law, 387 

Edward I.'s, 349-50 

Henry VIII. 's, 375 

of 1843, 569 

of 1846 as to education, 484-5 

Welsh land, Preface and Note 
to Reader 
Committee of 18S1 on education in 
Wales, 492-3, 512 

to promote University, 490-1, 

497 
Conferences as to education, 

in 1863, 490 

in 1888, 495 

in 1893, 498 
Conquest of Wales, 

Roman, 90-103 

Norman, 261-307 

Edwardian, 337-42 
Conquest of 

Amwythig, 274 

Brecheiniog, 281 

Buatlt, lb. 

Dyfed, 282 

Gloucestershire, 274 

Gower, 284 

Gwent, 278 

Gwyned, 340-2 



INDEX. 



^73 



Conquest of 

Herefordshire, 274 

Keredigion, 297 

Kidweli, 284 

Morgannwg, 278-81 

Powys, 291-303 

Worcestershire, 274 

Ystrad Towy, 284 
Contracts, 225-6 
Counties, Welsh, 

list of. Int. XV. 

formation of, 347-8, 351-2, 

370-5 
Court, 

of the cantref, 240 

of the cymwd, zb. 

of the king, 239 

of the President and Council 
of the Marches, 362-3, 
363-6, 384-6 

of Great Sessions, 377-9, 383, 
386-92 

county, 391 

of the Household, 193 

ecclesiastical, 217 
Cowyit, 212, n. i 
Crops, 249 
Crusade, 

Baldwin's preaching of a, 246 
Cyfarwys, 206, //'. n. 2 
Cymro, Cymry, Cymru, Cymraeg, 

meaning of, 26, 117 

origin of, 26, 106, 118-20 
Cymwd, Int. xvii. 130-1, 133, 190 
Cynghaws, 242 
Cyngheitor, 190 



D 



Da, 206, 208-9, 210 

Dadenhud, 208, 244 

Dadleuoed breninawl, 241 

Danes, 27 

Danish invasions, 142-3 

Dawn-bwyd, 224, n. i 

Dee, rowing of Eadgar on the, 155 

Deheubarth, 134, 162 

Deheubarthwyr, ?7'. 

Demetia, 8 

Descent on death of 

Tir gwelyawg, 221-2 

Tir cyfrif, 225 
Dialects of Welsh, 8-9 

Gwyndodeg, 8 

W.P. 



Dialects of Welsh, 

Gwenhwyseg, id., 20-1 

Powyseg, i'l;. 
Dialwr, 193 
Diet of the Welsh, 

at present, 551-565 

in mediaeval times, 250 
Dirwy, 238 
Dispute between Howel Da and 

Morgan Hen, 153-4 
Division of Wales into 

kingdoms, 130, 144-8 

principalities, id. 

cantrefs and cymwds, Int. xvii. 

lordships marchers. Int. xviii., 
356-61 

counties. Int. xv. 

hundreds, id. 

in 1282, 347-8 
Divorce, 213-14 
Diwygiad, the, 591 
Dragon, Red, 106 

of the island, 107 
Dress, at present, 565-70 

in early times, 251 
Druids, 255 
Drunkenness, 586-7 
Dux Britanniae, Dux Britanniarum 

Int. xxiv., 106-7, 118-9 
Dux Brittonum, 109 
Dyfed, 134, 150 



Eadgar, submission of Welsh 

rulers to, 159 
Eadward, submission of Welsh 

rulers to, id. 
Ebediw, 221 

Ecclesiastical persons, 216 
Ecgbryht, submission of Welsh 

rulers to, 141 
Edling, 202 
Edward I.'s conquest of Wales, 

350-4 
his settlement of Welsh affairs, 

361 
its constitutional effect, 355-61 
EistejJfod, 516-524 
Elementary schools, 485-6, 529 
Enclosures, 247, n. i 
English, 30-1, 543-50 
Epitaph, see Inscriptions 

X X 



674 



INDEX. 



Erw, 218-9, 7.1 8, n. i 
Estates, 

change from lordships to, 
440-52 

formation and continuity of, 
437-440 

smallness of, in Wales, 449-50 
Etifed, 222 
Excerpta quaedam de libro Davidis, 

177, n. 2 
Exchequer, Court of, 

proceedings of Welsh tenants 
in, 413-7 
Expeditions into Wales of 

Edward I., 335, 340 

Harold, 171-3 

Henry I., 290, 302 

Henry H., 309, 311, 315 

Henry HI., 319, 320, 323, 324, 

325 
John, 316 
William I., 273 
William H., 284-5, 286-7 
Extent 

of Kidvveli, 423 
of St. David's, 425 



Farmers, 579-80 
Farmhouses, 570-77 
Flemings, 27-30 
Fosterage, 207 
French, 270 
Fynwy, Sir, Int. xv. 



Galanas, 226, 227-34 
amount of, 229-30 
assessment of, 230-1 
division of, 231-2 
procedure as to, 232-3 
spear-penny, 230 
Galatic language, 4 
Gavael, 200, n. i, 218-9 
Glamorganshire, Int. xvi. 
Gloucestershire, 274, 280 
Goidelic language, 1-4, 532 
Goidels, 1-8, 83, 120 
Gortatlea, inscription at, 48 



Gosgorct, 204 

Great progress of the king, 204 

Guests, 250 

Gwadol, 209 

Gweision bychain, 206 

Gwely, 195, 220 

Gwent, 134-6, 275 

Gwentian Brut, 126, n. i 

Gwlad, 190 

Gwledig, 106, 108-9, 119 

Gwrda : see Uchelwr 

Gwrthdrych, 203, //'. n. 3 

Gwyned, 119, 134, 150-1 
laws of, 1 80- 1 
over-lordship of, 135 
special position of, 306-7 



H 



Habits of the Welsh, 

at present, 579-90 

in earlier times, 251-2 
Harper, 514, n. i 
Havod-dy, 248 
Heir, 222 
Hen-dref, 248 
Hereford, 168-9, 274 
History of Wales ; see Authorities 
Homage : see Submission 
Hospitality, 250 
Household, king's, 197 — 202 
Household, Welsh, 250 
Houses of the Welsh, 

early, 199-200 

labourers', 577-79 

modern, 570-77 
Howel Da, 

assembly at Ty Gwyn, 179, 181 

dispute with Morgan Hen, 153-5 

laws of, 155 e( set/. 

visit to Rome, 181-4 

visits to the English court, 153 
Hundreds, Int. xvii., 357, 377 
Husband : see Marriage 



I 

Ictis, 78 

Immorality, 581-6 

Infant, status of male, 205-8 
status of female, 208-10 
cyvarwys, 206, id. n. 2 



INDEX. 



675 



Inscriptions at or near to 

Ballintaggart, 57 

Bere, 47 

Castle Dwyran, 98, n. i 

Clydai, 17 

Colchester, 46, 62-64 

Corkaguiny, 52, 58 

Dunball, 47 

Dunlo, 18 

Dunmore Head, 57-8 

Gortatlea, 48 

Helston, 17 

Kilkenny Museum, 65 

Lanfaglan, 17 

Newton, 17 

Omagh, 18 

Shetlands, 64 

St. Vigeans, 16 

Valentia, 64 

Ventry's (Lord) Residence, 57 

Winsford Hill, 47 

in CO. Waterford, 52 

Ogam, 2, il>. n. 2, 65 
Instruments of husbandry, 249 

of music, 254 

Roman, 2 
Intermediate education, 487-8, 492 
Interregnum in Gwyned, 159, n. 3, 

160 
Invasions of Wales : see Expeditions 
Ireland, settlements of Celts in, 85 
Irish, 30 



J 

John's expedition into Wales, 316 
relations with ILewelyn Fawr, 

316-7 
Judges, in early times, 24 1 -245 

of the Great Sessions, 377, 

391-2 

English, in Wales, 392 
Judicial procedure, 241-45 
Justice, Chief, 

under ancient Welsh system, 239 

of Chester, 277 
Justices of the Peace, 378-9 



K 

Kennadlawg, battle of, 309 
Keredigioh, kingdom of, 134 

Norman conquest of, 297 
Kin, nearest of, 37 



Kindred ; see Cenedl 

King, 

early, 107-9, 120-1, 135-40 
gosgord of, 204 
household of, 197-201 
near relations of, 203-4 
progress of, 204 

Kingship, 

the Cymric, 147 



Lagana, 250, n. i 
Land : see Tir 
' Landed gentry, 448-52 
Landlord and tenant, 433-7 
Languages, 

Armoric, 2 
Brythonic, i 
Cornish, 2, 22 

Cymric ; see Welsh Language 
English, 30 
Galatic, 4 
Goidelic, i, 2-4 
Manx, 2 

Welsh : see Welsh Language 
Laws, Welsh, 

Altera sinodus luci Victorise, 

177, n. 2 
Ancient Laws and Institutes, 

180, ib. n. 3 
assembly at Ty Gwyn, 179, 181 
Blegywryd's verses, 183 
Canones Wallici, 177, n. 2 
character of the, 185-8 
Excerpta qusedam de libro 

Davidis, 177, n. 2 
Hen Lyfr y Ty Gwyn, 179, 181 
Howel Da's visit to Rome in 

connection with the, 181-4 
Latin versions of, 181 : see App. 

D. 
MSS. of the, 176, 181 
origin of, 186-8 
Prefatio Gildas de penitentia, 

177, n. 2 
Sinodus Aquilonis Britannias, 

177, n. 2 
Triads of Dyfnwal Moelmud, 

184-5 
Legal profession, 392-4 
Liber Landavensis, 128, n. 3 
Life of the Welsh farmer, 579-80, 
587-8, 596-608 



by6 



INDEX. 



Lordships, Int. xviii., 304-5, 409 
Lords Marchers, Int. xviii., 304, 
356-61, 370, 372, 382, 438-40 



IL 



ILadrad, 226, 234-7 

definitions of wrongs, as to da, 

235 
legal prosecution for theft, 236 

ILyfr prawf, 226 
Lys, cyvreithiau y, 197 
officers of the, 197-8 
And see Court and King 



M 
Mabinogi 

of Math, 37 
Madog's career, 294-9 
Maenol, 218-9, 218, n. 2 
Maer, 190 
Manx language, 2 
Marriage, Cymric, 

a contract, 210 

agwedi, 211, 213 

argyvreu, 209, 213 

conflict with Church as to, 210, 
212 

cowyit, 212, n, I 

dower of wife, 253 

how made, 211 

separation or divorce, condi- 
tions of, 213-4 
Maxen's Dream, 43 
Meals of the Welsh, 250 
Measurement of the island, 130-4 
Mechain, battle in, 269 
Mechniaeth, 225 
Mercia, division of, 149-50 

Earls of, 163 

Lady of, 150 

relations of Gruffydab ILewelyn 
with, 165 
Migration of tribes, 3-7, 9-12 

of Cuneda, 1 19-21, 120, n. 2 
Morgannwg, Int. xvi., 154, 27S-81 
Mormonism, in relation to the 

Welsh, 595-6 
MSS. of Laws, 176, iSi : see An- 

thorities 
Museum, claim for a Welsh, 536-7 
Music, 254 
Musical instruments, 254 



N 
Nawd, 238 

Near relations of the King, 203-4 
Newspapers, Welsh, 60S-9 
Nonconformity in Wales, 

beginning of, 462 

characteristics of, 589 

results of, 473-7 

statistics as to, 453-8 

the great revival, 469-70, 473 
Normal colleges or schools, 486 
Norman Conquest of Wales, 

its nature, 261-69 

its results as to land tenure, 
304-6, 326-7. 396-406 
Normans, 27, 35 



O 



O ach ac edryu, plaint by, 244 

Oaths, 244-5 

Offa's Dyke, 140-1 

Office, braint of, 217-S 

Ogam, 2, 2, n. 2, 65 

Ordeals, 245 

Overlordship of Gwyned, 135 



Parishes, Welsh, Int. xvii. 
Parliamentary representation, 374-5 
Peace of Wedmore, 149 ; see Treaty 
Pedigree, 

importance of, 257 

of Morcant, 132, n. i 

of Owain ab Howel Da, 138, 
n. 2 
Penkenedl, 192-3 
Penteulu, 193 

Periodicals, Welsh, 533-35, 608 
Person, different classes of, 19 1-2 
Personal habits of Welsh, 251 
Picts, 14-23, 34 
Plaint by dadenhud, 244 

kin and reckoning, ib. 
Poetry, Welsh, 246-7, 254 : see Bard 

and Eistedfod 
Population, Int. xviii. -xxii. 

Welsh-speaking, 543-50 
Powys, 291-303 

Preachers, Welsh, 472-3, 477, n. i 
Prefatio Gildse de penitentia, 177, 

n. 2 



INDEX. 



677 



Prince : see Tywysog 
Priodolion Leoed", 199-201 
Progress : see King 
Proof Book, 226, 647 
PwH: Gwdyc, battle of, 272 

Q 
Quarter Sessions, 379 
Queen's Court or Household, 198 
Quit-rents, 403-4 



R 

Races, 

Aboriginal, Int. xxiv., 11-14, 36, 
61, 120 

Brythons, 1-8, 10, 35, 36, 86, 
120 

Celts, I, 4-5, 61 

Cymry, 26, 117, 119 

Danes, 27 

English, 30-1 

Flemings, 28-30 

Goidels, 1-8, 83, 120 

Irish, 30 

Normans, 27, 35 

Ovo\ovvroi, ib. 

Picts, 14-23, 34 

Romans, 27 

Scandinavians, 27, 31, 35 

Ultonian, 87-8 
Randir, 218 
Reading-rooms, 60 1 -8 
Real contracts, 225 
Reception into the cenedl, 205 
Recovery of da, 235 
Retinue of the king, 204 
Revival, 591 

the great, 471-475 

its results, 475-6 
Rhaith, 205, n. i 
Rhudlan, statute of, 350-6 
Rig Domna, 203, n. 3 
Roman administration, 103-5 

officers, ib. 
Romans, 27 



Saint David's College, 489 
Sale of goods, 225 
of land, 222-3 
Saraad, 228 
Saraad of the king of Aberffraw, 229 



Saunders' Visitation of Bangor, 464 
Scandinavians, 27, 31, 35 
Schools, 

circulating, 481-2 

elementary, 485-6, 529 

grammar, 479 

intermediate, 487-8 

normal, 486 

Sunday, 482, 507-8 
Seiet, 589 

Sein Henyd, 247, n. i 
Separation of husband and wife, 

213-4 
Sessions, 

Court of Great, 377-9, 383, 
386-392 

Quarter, 379 
Sinodus Aquilonis Britannise, 177, 

n. 2 
Society, Welsh mediaeval, 246 
Son : see Infant 
Spear-penny, 230 
Statute of RhuSlan, 350-6, 400 
Statutes : 26 Henry VII. cc. 4, 5^ 
6, II, 12. ..367-8 

27 Henry VIII. c. 26, 368-75 

34 & 35 Henry VIII. c. 26, 

374-383 

I Wm. & Mary, sess. i. c. 2, 
386 

II Geo. IV. & I Wm. IV. 
c. 70, 389-90 

Strata Florida, meeting of Welsh 

vassals at, 321 
Submission of Welsh princes to 

Alfred, 145-6, 148 

.iEthelstan, 149-151 

Eadgar, 159 

Eadward the Elder, 149-51 

Ecgbryht, 141 

Edward I., 336 

Harold, 173, 306 

Henry I., 295, 303 

Henry II., 310, 313, 314-5 

Henry III., 318-9, 321-2, 325, 

332, 335-7 
John, 315, 319 
Succession : see Descent 
Swansea, 247, n. 2 



T 

Taeog, 191, zd. n. i, 214 6V seij. 
Tan, 226, 237-8 
Tanaist, 203, il>. n. 3 



678 



INDEX. 



'-5? 



Teisbanteulu, 193 

Tenant of Crown lands, 418-23 

from year to year, 429-32, 437 

in South Wales, 423-29 
Terms for judicial proceedings, 242 
Theological colleges, 483, n. i 
Tir cyfrif, 222-25 

dawn-bwyd from, 224, n. i 

duties of tenants of, 223-4 

succession on death of, 225 
Tir gwelyawg, 220-1 

alienation of, 222-3 

ebediw, 221 

etifed, 222 

gwestva from, 220 

succession on death to, 221-2 

tunc pound, 221 
Towns, 163, 247, id. n. 2 
Treaty of 

Alnet, 323 

Conway, 335 6 

Montgomery, 332 

Woodstock, 325 
Triads of Dyfnwal Moelmud, 184-5 
Trial, method of, 242-4 
Tribal system, 186, 188-93, 349"402 
Tribes, distribution of Celtic, 

in Britain, 1111-6 

on Continent, 5 

migrations of, 3-7, 9-12 
Tydyn, 193, id. n. 4, 218 
Ty Gwyn, assembly at, 647 
Tywysog, 134 



U 

Uchelwr, 191, 195, 204 £/ se(/. 
Ultonian race, 87-8 
University of Wales, 

charter of, 498-9 

colleges of the, 493-4 

Cromwell and Baxter's corre- 
spondence as to, 480 



University of Wales, 

Glyndwr's project, 469 
modern movement for a, 489- 

91, 494-500 
opposition in Parliament to the, 

498-500 
St. David's College, 489 



W 

Wales, 

divisions of, Int. xv.-xviii. 

its physical aspect, 247 
See cantref, counties, cymwd, 
division, hundred, lordships, 
parishes 
Warfare, methods of Welsh, 252-4 
Weapons, 253, id. n. i 
Wedmore, peace of, 149 
Wele, 397 
Welsh books, 530-6 

statistics as to, 530, 533 
Welsh language, 

its relation to kindred languages, 
502-3 

its history, 503-11, 513-6 

its prospects, 5 10- 11 
Wife : see Marriage 
Witenagemot, attendance of Welsh 

princes at, 152-3, 153, n. 2, 156 
Wotton's Leges Wallicas, 179-80, 

180, n. I 



Ynad ILys, 239 
Yokes, 249 

Ystrad Clud, 149, n. 2 
Ystrad Towi, 284 



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